Written by The Cosmetic Center at DC Ranch, Medically Reviewed by Dr. Michelle Cabret.
Typically we look at filler as an enhancement to level up existing volume and restore smaller areas of projection deficiencies. While a facelift addresses facial tissues that have descended from their previous youthful placement. A facelift also addresses jowling, loose skin, and structural changes that have come with age and the effects of gravity. There comes a time for most patients looking for facial rejuvenation that filler cannot meet their end goal, and surgical intervention is necessary.
If you’re doing routine filler, Botox, lasers, and noninvasive treatments that are not really meeting your end beauty goals, it might indicate that you’re a prime candidate for a facial rejuvenation surgery like a facelift. If your jawline is not as crisp as it used to be, or your jowls have gotten fuller and lower on the face, or you pull your facial skin up and back, then you know it could be time for a facelift consultation. Those are hallmark indicators that a facial rejuvenation surgery (like a facelift, neck lift, brow lift, or a combination of several procedures) might be your next cosmetic investment.
Dr. Michelle Cabret has been injecting filler for many Scottsdale, Arizona patients since the JET (Juvederm Experience Trial) trial that got HA fillers FDA approval in 2006 before the widespread release for injectors in 2007. She has been incorporating injectable filler and neuromodulators like Botox, Dysport, and Xeomin into her surgical facial rejuvenation services since then.
When patients come to The Cosmetic Center at DC Ranch for a complimentary consultation for facelifts, they get to meet with our Director of Nursing and Patient Care Coordinator, Nurse Alexis, as well as time to sit with Dr. Michelle and go over their end goals and what surgical and noninvasive procedures will get them to that goal. A large focus of the consultation is why the face has changed, and what we can do to turn back the clock while looking like ourselves, just younger.
HA (hyaluronic acid) fillers are primarily used to restore areas of the face and body that have lost volume due to age and weight loss. It is a gel-like product that is injected beneath the skin to change the facial shape by adding structural support and filling areas that have become deficient.
Filler is a great solution for our Scottsdale, AZ patients who are looking to improve the appearance of facial volume and contour. Dr. Michelle and our injection Nurse Alexis, both strategically inject filler in our patients’ faces where they need a temporary lift and fill. However, filler does not truly reposition soft tissues that have descended with age and the impact of gravity, or in cases of skin laxity after weight loss, which would take so much filler to address that it would be cost-prohibitive to fill it with HA versus surgically restoring that part of the face.
Facial rejuvenation surgery, especially facelifts, addresses the skin laxity and tissue descent. The goal of a facelift is to reposition structural tissues of the face that have shifted downward due to age, gravity, and weight loss. Repositioning layers of the face and removing excess skin and fat to restore a more youthful position of your soft tissue. Typically, our Scottsdale, AZ facelift patients will pair their surgery with a neck lift and, if needed, an endoscopic brow lift. Allowing Dr. Michelle Cabret to restore the face as a whole, not just one facial third at a time.
Our philosophy is that filler temporarily adds volume, and a facelift in Dr. Michelle’s hands can reposition tissue, restoring it to a more youthful position. If you’re a filler patient in Scottsdale, AZ, who is no longer seeing the results you want with filler alone, it might be time to sit down with Dr. Michelle for a complimentary facelift consultation. Together we can create a surgical and noninvasive plan that achieves the look you’re wanting to see in the mirror!
As each of our Scottsdale patients experience facial aging, those changes occur far deeper than the surface of the skin. Loss of skeletal support, diminishing face fat compartments, laxity of the facial ligaments and supporing tissues, and changes within the deeper SMAS layer and platysma tissues all contribute to facial hollowing, jowling, and loss of a crisp youthful jawline and neck definition. Dr. Michelle’s advanced understanding of the face has led our team to live by the belief that meaningful facial rejuvenation, especially facelifts, requires more than simply pulling the skin tighter. At the Cosmetic Center at DC Ranch, we restore and reposition the face as a whole, not just quick fixes that may require ongoing maintenance.
Each patient will age differently, but across most of our face and neck lift patients there are hallmark signs that facial rejuvenation will better achieve a restored and refreshed look, over a noninvasive filler appointment. Volume loss typically creates hollowing in the temples, cheeks, and under eye areas. While tissue shifts can move fullness downward, making the jawline feel heavy and aged. Supporting structures (like the skeleton) losing density can contribute to loose skin in the lower face and neck. Changes in deeper tissues, like the platysmal muscle, can further impact the contours of the neck, banding, and just an overall aged appearance. At the surface of all of that, skin aging adds another layer of rejuvenation that Dr. Michelle addresses during her facelifts. With the power of her CO2 laser she can improve the skin’s texture, pigmentation, fine lines, and overall quality.
When searching for a surgeon to do your facelift in Scottsdale, you will want to trust a provider that understands that all the layers of the face and each surgical procedure impacts the next. Dr. Michelle’s 25 years of facial rejuvenation surgical experience has supported that her deeper training and understanding of the face, jaws, head, and neck have longer lasting facelift results. Dr. Michelle can review your photos and examine your face while at the consultation to create a surgical plan that addresses the anatomical changes your face has undergone, and how to address them. Each treatment plan is written based on your unique anatomy, never a ‘one-size-fits-all’.
With all of that being said, a younger face doesn’t automatically mean injecting filler, and older faces don’t automatically mean that your only choice is surgery. Each patient is unique. Dr. Michelle has browlifted a 30-something-year-old patient who has clinical indications for it. While primarily using HA fillers for a 55+ year-old-patient that still has good facial structure and just needs a little contour and volume. Anatomy informs treatment plans, not an age category.
For most of Dr. Michelle and Nurse Alexis’ patients, filler is a great way to increase a conservative amount of volume and create beautiful natural projection and contours. But aging still continues alongside noninvasive injectables. Years after your first filler injection, your facial rejuvenation needs may shift from volume loss to structural descent and skin laxity. At that juncture, treating the areas of concern with more and more filler will lead to less patient satisfaction and a significant financial investment. Your cosmetic needs have changed, and so that treatment plan should be addressed as well.
At The Cosmetic Center at DC Ranch we call this the filler tipping point. It is the point where our patients go from needing subtle fill and contour to wanting to restore soft tissue, skin, and angles to a more youthful position. As those deeper tissues need a little more support and excess fat and skin need to be removed, facelifts become a fantastic option. Reaching this filler tipping point doesn’t mean that filler doesn’t work or give you some beautiful volume, but it means that your face’s structure needs a little facelift refresh by Dr. Michelle Cabret.
When patients feel like their jawline has become heavy, sagging, and lacks a smooth transition from face to the neck, you’re probably experiencing some level of jowling. Volume loss can be attributed to an overall appearance of facial aging, but jowling is not just an area that needs to be filled. It is an area that needs to be repositioned back to its more youthful place. Dr. Michelle Cabret knows that repositioning the face’s lower soft tissues will restore a crisper, more youthful looking jawline and lower face. Understanding how to treat jowling starts with an examination to determine if this is a loss of volume, tissue descent, laxity, but most frequently a combination of all three.
A lot of our Phoenix and Scottsdale face and neck lift patients often tell us that they used to have a crisp and defined jawline. What once used to be a sharp mandible now has shifted to heaviness around the mouth, and lower face. This is a different treatment plan and complaint from a patient who has an underprojected chin and jaw and has never experienced a defined jawline. Dr. Michelle can certainly help with that too and pair a face and neck lift with custom facial implants. If the structure used to be there, and just needs an unveiling and rewinding of time, continuing to add volume via filler may add bulk without correcting the underlying issue. But a face and neck lift in Dr. Michelle’s hands can certainly achieve a more youthful sharper jawline.
;D. Michelle knows that neck laxity is often a mixture of several factors not just skin laxity, often it is a deep supportive tissue issue that should be surgically addressed. The platysma muscle is a thin muscle in the neck area that can often get stretched, lax, and have fat pushing against it from behind. When this muscle separates, it can become more visible, creating banding or making the neck look fuller, and will contribute to the jawline softening. Patients that are researching neck lifting procedures in Scottsdale,n important factor isn't just who can tighten that muscle back up, but restoring a sharper jawline that is cohesive with a lower facelift as well.
At every one of Dr. Michelle’s complimentary consultations, she asks the patient to get vulnerable and show her the areas of their face that bother them the most. This is actually a huge teaching moment between patient and provider, where we really get to see areas that need addressing. How those areas move, what specifically bothers our patient, and what tools we have in our tool belt to improve them. When our patient holds their midface and shifts that lax skin and tissue up and back, we know that we’re looking at facial rejuvenation surgery. It isn’t always an indication to do a full face and neck lift, but repositioning skin up and back is an act of surgical restoration rather than using filler to increase volume.
When volume loss in the face is the principal concern, filler is a fantastic noninvasive product to address the concern. But injecting filler becomes a diminishing return as the face continues to age. As the face ages, concerns shift to tissue descent, laxity, and jowling, not just a loss of volume. That is usually the point where injecting more volume into the face doesn’t really provide the same end result it used to. That doesn’t mean filler stopped working; it just means that you need to address your facial rejuvenation in a multifactorial way. When patients recognize they’re at the filler tipping point, and need to address aging from a different perspective, Dr. Michelle and her team can pivot treatment plans to plan for facial rejuvenation surgery.
Fuller faces don’t necessarily equate to a more youthful face. While certain points of the face look more youthful when fuller, it is just one component of a refreshed younger face. Proportion, skeletal support, smooth contours, and the position of the facial tissues are also all hallmarks of a youthful face. Dr. Michelle understands this distinction and knows how important it is when building a treatment plan for a facelift candidate versus a filler candidate. The restoration of lost volume is important to create beautiful balance, but adding filler cannot reposition deep tissues that have descended with time and gravity. In some cases, more fullness may even age the face rather than make it look more youthful working against the goal of a sharper cheek, jawline, and neck contours. The beauty team at The Cosmetic Center at DC Ranch’s goal is not always more volume, but rather restoring youthful facial harmony!
Nonsurgical treatments and surgical procedures do different jobs, and they are often complementary. Filler restores lost volume and can enhance contour, neuromodulators soften expressions caused by muscle movement. Things like microneedling and laser treatments focus more on the skin itself, improving texture, fine lines, pigmentation, and overall skin quality. Energy-based treatments treat skin laxity, collagen stimulation, and muscle engagement of varying degrees just depending on the technology being used. If these treatments aren’t giving the desired end point, it doesn’t mean that these treatments have failed, it just means that your needs have changed. To prepare for a facelift, and then maintain your surgical results, all of these noninvasive options are great tools to keep in your beauty routine! Don’t write off their effectiveness just because they are not as effective as they were when you first started your cosmetic journey.
Short answer, no, it cannot. But it doesn’t mean that one treatment is better than the other. It just indicates that these avenues to facial rejuvenation serve different purposes. Each treatment has a job to do in the hands of Dr. Michelle Cabret. As she listens to your concerns, she can assess which tool will achieve the best end point and satisfaction for the patient.
When you research filler in the Scottsdale area, think volume restoration. When your face’s natural muscle movement has created fine lines and wrinkles, you know neuromodulators like Botox, Dysport, and Xeomin will help relax and smooth out those areas. Dr. Michelle’s “magic laser”, her Co2 laser, helps restore and resurface the skin. Microneedling helps restore the skin’s texture, and pigment. At The Cosmetic Center at DC Ranch, facelifting is truly the only intervention that actually repositions and restructures the multiple layers of the face.
If you previously have had filler injected, it does not mean that you cannot have a face and neck lift, or any other facial rejuvenation procedures. Dr. Michelle Cabret will go over where your filler was injected, which filler product/type was used, and how long ago it was injected. All of this information, along with your facial anatomy, will help inform Dr. Michelle’s surgical treatment plan.
Dr. Michelle will use all of these points of information to understand what may still be present in your skin, and how those previous treatments could influence how your anatomy or surgical plan will need to be tailored specifically to you. In some cases, Dr. Michelle may suggest dissolving your filler before surgery.
Dr. Michelle Cabret doesn’t believe that there is a magical age or time frame that automatically makes you a facelift candidate, or disqualifies you from that specific facial rejuvenation surgery. Every patient’s soft tissue, structural components, and connective tissues are different and unique to their own lived experiences, environment, and genetics. Each of these factors plays a role in the creation of your surgical plan, and is far more important than just a date on the calendar and the year you were born.
Especially in Scottsdale, Arizona, where the sun can take a toll on our patients' skin and make photoaging more common than in other areas of the country. Dr. Michelle Cabret knows well that living in such a UV-rich part of the country can lead to premature aging, sun spots, and wrinkling that might happen slower to facelift patients in other climates. It is also common for The Cosmetic Center at DC Ranch’s facelift patients to need facial rejuvenation after a massive weight loss and lifestyle change. There are also genetic factors at play that might influence when and how you address your face and neck cosmetic needs. Ultimately, we’re all subject to the effects of gravity, and a facelift is a great solution to rewind time, and see a more youthful face in the mirror
After tens of thousands of consultations, 25 years in private practice, and many happy facelift patients later, Dr. Michelle and her team never hear that the patient would like to look younger at any cost. Instead, we hear that our Scottsdale patients would like to look like themselves just younger and well-rested. Most of our patients want to recognize the person looking back at them in the mirror. A better-defined jawline, smoother ‘snatched’ neck, and facial contours that feel more youthful. The goal isn’t for someone to readily notice that you’ve had a facelift, but for them to notice how happy you are living your best life!
A natural-looking facelift is designed to avoid an excessively tight or pulled appearance. As Dr. Michelle plans out your unique facelift, she is taking the deeper level changes responsible for facial aging into consideration alongside your bone structure. Making surgical plans to restore a more youthful relationship between cheeks, jawline, lower face, and neck. We don’t want to erase every line or distort your facial features, but rather restore the face you had in the prime of youth. Dr. Michelle is deeply committed to preserving her patients’ features, expressions, and proportions that define their unique faces. When your facelift is performed by someone as skilled and experienced as Dr. Michelle Cabret, you should simply look rested, balanced, and unmistakably like yourself.
Our team’s commitment to this philosophy is the foundation of Dr. Michelle’s 25 years of facelift experience in Scottsdale. Her maxillofacial background, paired with more than 25 years of cosmetic and plastic surgery experience, gives her an unparalleled understanding of the face from its skeletal foundation, to the muscles, nerves, fascia, fat compartments, and skin. Never a simple skin pull when you’re in the hands of such a skilled and talented surgeon, but each layer of the face gets the attention it needs to achieve the end cosmetic goal. Her goal remains consistent: to restore, support, and contour without sacrificing the characteristics that make each of her Scottsdale patients unique.
Dr. Michelle Cabret spends time diagnosing the anatomical cause of her patients' concerns before building a treatment plan. Filler and facelift surgery are both techniques in her practice that help inform the right choice for her patients based upon what has actually changed anatomically.
Her maxillofacial background, paired with 25 years of plastic and cosmetic surgical experience, gives Dr. Michelle Cabret a unique and broad framework of both education and skill for evaluating the face from skeletal foundation to the outermost skin.
When you’re considering facial rejuvenation or facelifts in Scottsdale, Arizona, your consultation shouldn’t start with how many syringes of filler you need, or if we’re rolling straight back to the operating room. It should begin with a safe, comfortable, and confidential conversation where Dr. Michelle will get to know you, your anatomy, and desired cosmetic endpoint.
A facelift can reposition tissue, correct jowling, and restore definition to the face and neck, but it does not permanently pause the aging process. Skin will continue to age, select areas of volume and contour may be needed, and pigmentation, skin texture, and fine lines may still benefit from non-surgical treatments like laser resurfacing and microneedling.
That is why our team views facial rejuvenation as a comprehensive and long-term strategy. Surgery addresses a lot of patient’s principal cosmetic concerns, getting them very close to their endpoint. But our noninvasive interventions like filler can take you the rest of the way there! It should not be an all-or-nothing approach when we talk about filler versus facelift surgery, but a unique treatment plan designed by Dr. Michelle Cabret to get you looking refreshed!
Only you know when you’re ready to explore facial rejuvenation surgery. But a facelift becomes a strong suggestion with our Scottsdale patients who want to address jowling, softening of the jawline, facial tissue descent, or neck laxity. Those areas of the face that are no longer responding to nonsurgical treatments like filler and Botox.
Filler can camouflage the look of jowls to be less severe. But to truly ‘fix’ them, you’ll need to have a facelift performed by Dr. Michelle Cabret.
Filler’s primary role is to add volume to areas of the face and body, it does not usually lift and reposition soft tissue.
There is no universal rule for this. Dr. Michelle Cabret will want to know the last time you had filler injected, and what type of filler it was.
There is no rule on when a facelift becomes the best option to achieve your cosmetic goals. Each treatment plan for facelifts with Dr. Michelle Cabret is designed around your unique anatomy.
Yes! Most of our Scottsdale patients have done fillers and Botox before doing facial rejuvenation surgery like a facelift.
That is totally dependent on Dr. Michelle’s examination of your face at your consultation. If she feels like your best surgical result involves dissolving filler that will be in the way, or has migrated away from where it should be, then she will indicate that in your treatment plan.
That is a decision that Dr. Michelle Cabret will help her Scottsdale, Arizona patients make while at a complimentary consultation at The Cosmetic Center at DC Ranch.
Not usually, loose neck skin is best addressed with a face and neck lift.
That is totally dependent on the patient, and how quickly your body metabolizes filler. Most filler patients get injected 2-3 times a year. Where a facelift done by Dr. Michelle Cabret usually lasts 10-15 years.
Absolutely! Facelifts don’t pause aging, but you will probably not need as much product injected, nor as frequently as you did before your facelift at The Cosmetic Center at DC Ranch.
A facelift is the surgical procedure to lift and restore the mid- to lower face’s soft tissues. A neck lift is designed to correct lax neck tissue, platysmal banding, and excess fat in the neck.
That is a personal decision that should be informed by a complimentary consultation with Dr. Michelle Cabret. But a true sign that a consultation is worth your time is if you are no longer seeing the youthful results you used to get with nonsurgical options. If you’re pulling your skin up and back to reveal the face you once knew. Or you’re just ready to look refreshed!
Will another syringe of filler actually give you the change you’re looking to achieve? That isn’t a question you have to answer on your own. When your nonsurgical treatments stop giving you the result you want, it may be time to be evaluated for a facelift with Dr. Michelle Cabret at The Cosmetic Center in Scottsdale, Arizona.
At your complimentary consultation with our team of beauty experts led by Dr. Michelle Cabret, your facial anatomy, goals, and previous medical history will be gone over in great detail. At that appointment, we’ll come up with a comprehensive treatment plan that truly is informed by you. No one-size-fits-all approach here!
You don’t need to wait and wonder if it is the right time for a facelift. You simply need to come sit down with our all-female surgical team and have an honest conversation about your goals. Then let Dr. Michelle work her magic from there!
