Plastic surgery is by no means a new thing. Every year, thousands of people sign up for operations intended to improve and enhance their physical appearance. The prevalence of nose jobs and face lifts has reached record highs, and the popularity of these procedures has been exacerbated by mass media. Every time you turn on the TV, odds are there is a celebrity who has had some type of plastic surgery treatment.
The newest craze in celebrity cosmetic procedures is the puppet facelift, which has the primary focus of eliminating age-related facial folds. As we get older, our skin naturally develops fine lines and wrinkles. Most noticeably, lines form from the corners of your mouth vertically to the edge of your face, forming the look of a marionette mouth. This is normal for everyone, but the rate of development can be facilitated in people who fail to take proper care of their skin.
Factors like smoking, excess drinking, direct exposure to sunlight, and other risk factors play a toll on the epidermis. So it hardly comes as a surprise that more and more people are turning to procedures like puppet facelifts to serve as an effective countermeasure.
Contrary to popular belief and unlike conventional facelifts, “puppets” are not nearly as invasive; instead of making incisions or inserting implants, doctors use needles and thread, literally sewing the skin in order to tighten and firm the face.
As grueling as it may sound at first, puppet facelifts are quick operations (most only take a few hours to complete) and are relatively painless with the use of an anesthetic. Armed with strong polymer fibers, the surgeon meticulously goes to work on the affected region, pulling the skin taut and threading it in place.
The needles used are ultra-thin and cause very minimal harm to the face. In fact, after the post-recovery phase has run its course, the results of a puppet facelift look much more natural than their traditional counterparts.
A small degree of bruising and swelling is common for a few days following the procedure, and patients are told to avoid smiling for at least one week, to give the threads adequate time to heal and settle in the skin.
While the procedure is available to anyone, the majority of patients are women over the age of 30. Many plastic surgeons will not perform a puppet facelift on younger individuals, given the fact that they are often better suited for alternative wrinkle treatments.