Dr. Durkin’s Facelift Technique
Our most sought after procedure at Ocean Drive Plastic Surgery is the OCEAN DRIVE® limited incision facelift. After years of experience, Dr. Alan Durkin, our Board Certified Plastic Surgeon, has developed a proprietary limited incision facelift called, the OCEAN DRIVE® Facelift. Dr. Durkin’s limited incision facelift technique is designed to provide the best possible result to the midface, lower face, and neck without the use of large, prominent incisions. The OCEAN DRIVE® Facelift involves an incision that is less than half the normal incision used to undertake a facelift, but it allows Dr. Durkin to provide comprehensive rejuvenation to the midface and lower face through comprehensive elevation of the SMAS layer.
SMAS Limited Incision Facelift
With the exception of the face, every muscle in the human body connects one bone to another. For example, your bicep muscle attaches your upper arm bone (humerus bone), to your lower arm bone (radius bone). When your bicep contracts, your elbow moves because the muscle acts as a “lever” across the elbow, lifting the lower bone. The human face, however, is completely different. In the face, the facial muscles attach from the facial bones to the facial skin! This allows us to reposition the skin, a process we call “facial animation”. There are 43 separately named muscles in the human face, and all of them allow for motion of facial skin, or for mastication.
What is the SMAS?
As the facial muscles travel from bone to skin, they pass through an incredibly important tissue layer called the Superficial Musculo-Aponeurotic System, or SMAS, for short. The SMAS layer allows for efficient motion of the facial muscles by strengthening their insertion as they travel towards skin. One of the cornerstones of any modern facelift is rejuvenation and tightening of the SMAS layer.
Our limited incision facelift technique, developed by Dr. Durkin, allows for comprehensive elevation of the SMAS layer. The lift procedure is designed to place maximal tension on the underlying SMAS layer without disturbing or distorting the muscle planes below. As well, by placing the tension on the SMAS layer, Dr. Durkin is able to minimize any tension on the visible skin, which avoids that un-natural “windswept look” that all facelift patients dread. This is our secret to natural, long-lasting results in facelifting procedures. We have created an internal lift vector based on your own anatomy that allows us to rejuvenate your face without excessively pulling your skin.