The modern minimally invasive face lift: has it replaced the traditional access approach?

Because modern facelift patients desire a less-invasive approach or minimally invasive approach to reduce visible scarring and decrease the recovery phase, achieving the surgeon's goal of optimal, reliable, and long-term aesthetic results with few complications becomes a challenge. The authors use the terms minimal access and traditional access to describe rhytidectomy approaches based solely on incision size. A short-incision, minimal-access approach with a deep-plane extended dissection is presented. A preoperative physical examination maneuver to evaluate a patient's candidacy for a minimal-access approach and guidelines for when to include platysmaplasty with the procedure to further improve cervicomental contour are described.