from COSMETIC SURGERY TIMES, May 2001

Endoscopic approach addresses what traditional facelift does not
by Lisette Hilton
Contributing Editor

Atlanta -- While surgeons have embraced lifting the brows using an endoscope, not many have used the surgical tool to do the facelift.

Brian P. Maloney, M.D., medical director of the Maloney Center, Atlanta, and John Scheibelhoffer, M.D., a board certified facial plastic surgeon practicing in Wayne, N.J., said that using the endoscope to perform a mid-facelift offers important benefits. According to a recently published paper, the minimal incision endoscopic technique addresses the vertical lengthening of the lower eyelids, deepening of the nasolabial fold, down-turning of the corners of the mouth, and flattening of the cheek area more dramatically than a traditional facelift.

“The traditional facelift addresses the excess tissues of the neck and cheek area. It really doesn't do anything to the tissue in the middle part of the face,” Dr. Maloney said. “So, over the years as we've been doing facelift surgery, we've been able to take away a lot of excess tissue in the lower third of the face and give people some improvement. But if you look at their pictures, oftentimes, they don't look all that much younger. They might look better.”

According to Dr. Maloney, the endoscopic mid-facelift corrects some of the telltale signs of aging. Over time, he said, the cheek tissue begins to drop; the nasolabial fold begins to deepen; the lower eyelids lengthen and the cheeks become flat. “With the endoscopic subperiosteal facelift, we make a little incision on the inside of the mouth, free up all the cheek tissue, and lift that up. It helps to shorten the lower eyelid, softens the down-turning of the corner of the mouth, softens the deepening of that fold between the cheek and the mouth, and helps to restore the fullness to the cheek area,” he said.

Dr. Scheibelhoffer said that the procedure is particularly effective in diminishing the nasolabial fold. “I think that's because you're repositioning the malar fat pad and bringing it up more toward the zygomatic arch. It flattens out that area where the traditional facelift doesn't do that all that well,” he said.

The endoscopic facelift is a natural extension to the endoscopic browlift, Dr. Maloney said. “One of the neat things that the endoscope did for brow lifting is it really made us stop and look at the anatomy of the area. All of the sudden, we really started focusing on why those

Dr. Brian P. Maloney
Facial Plastic Surgeon
Atlanta, GA
(404) 252-5438