Considering a string face-lift? You may want to think twice

Q. All of my friends have had string face-lifts. They’re convincing me I should do it. Would you recommend it?

A. I do not do any string lifts or string facial elevation. I do not believe in the process and have written about this in the past.

Having been a surgeon for over 30 years and one who has done many face-lifts, I recognize what it takes to lift a face. Using strings in any form is not a great option.

Over the years, I have seen multiple procedures come and go. More times than not, these procedures are not cost-effective and do not give patients the results they should get.

When I review and consider a procedure that I will do on a patient, I always look at the results and risks. If the procedure doesn’t do what it says it’s going to do and doesn’t do anything for my patients, then I do not do it.

With the advent of multiple providers doing all types of procedures, the field of plastic surgery and aesthetics has become very competitive. Often, non-surgically trained providers do procedures that need surgery to get good results. Their results often lead to issues should a person require surgical intervention in the future.

This procedure is one of those. There may be a few times when a person turns to this, such as patients who cannot tolerate surgery, are too old or have medical conditions that would prevent them from having surgery.

When I ask patients who have had this procedure about the results, they often tell me it was OK, it lasted a short time and they probably would not do it again. I am sure there are exceptions, but it seems the expectations of people who have this procedure are very low.

So keeping with my philosophy of providing results that last and add value to my patient’s lives, I respectfully would not do this procedure.

Dr. Carlos Wolf is a partner in Miami Plastic Surgery and is board certified. Email questions to him at Cwolf@miamiplasticsurgery.com.