Cheryl Traveled from Arizona to Newport Beach for the Natural-Looking Deep Plane Facelift She Couldn’t Find at Home

Some patients travel only a short distance for an initial consultation. Cheryl flew from Arizona to receive complete facial surgery that was unavailable near her home. Her reason was a simple but extremely effective concept of facial rejuvenation: rejuvenate the face without ever giving the appearance of having had any surgery.

When asked why she made the effort to travel to California, Cheryl did not discuss facial changes. Instead, she described the discrepancy between the way she felt about herself and the appearance of her face. “Although I believe I have been aging gracefully with respect to my spirit and my attitude, my face certainly has not kept up with these changes,” she said. “Only when you can finally achieve the harmony between the appearance of your face and your feelings of well-being can you truly say that you are aging gracefully.” After thorough research for the best deep plane facelift in the USA, she found that the care of Dr. Kevin Sadati, located in Newport Beach, California, aligned with her frame of mind and expectations.

Not Just a Procedure — A Plan

After virtual and in-person consultations, Cheryl and Dr. Sadati developed a comprehensive plan to provide her with a youthful and age-appropriate facial rejuvenation. The plan included a Preservation Deep Plane facelift and neck lift, temporal brow lift, lower lid surgery, and facial skin laser resurfacing. All procedures were performed with twilight sedation, without the need for full general anesthesia, which requires intubation.

The deep plane facelift repositioned deep layers of the face and neck called SMAS as a single unit, rather than simply tightening and pulling on the skin. Temporal brow lift and lower eyelid surgery resulted in a re-opening of the eyes. Improvement of the quality of the skin resulted from the CO2 laser treatment.

Finally, all components of the treatment were directed toward the same objective: not to create a new face, but to restore the appearance of a youthful face from 15 years ago.

The Real Recovery: A Setback, Not a Story Stopper

Cheryl’s healing wasn’t a straight line, and her story is more honest and more useful for it. Part of her deep plane neck lift involved reducing her submandibular glands, the salivary glands beneath the jaw. Many individuals’ submandibular glands become enlarged and protrude as they get older. If not reduced during the neck contouring, they will show as a ball under the jawlines. The whole surgery went smoothly. But sometime after she got home, those glands began leaking fluid into her neck, forming a pocket that had to be drained, and the drains went back in for a short period while it resolved. According to her, she ate super spicy food that triggered a larger than normal salivary response. It’s part of why patients are asked to follow a bland diet up to 10 days after deep plane neck lift, to reduce the possibility of salivary leaks. None of that makes the moment easier when you’re the one experiencing it. A setback like this can feel like a step backward in an already long recovery, even when everyone involved knows healing was never going to be a straight line. Cheryl didn’t panic, and our team didn’t either. We worked through it together to resolve the issue quickly.

When the Mirror Finally Agrees with You

What makes the deep plane facelift unique is most apparent over years, not after three months. Although Cheryl appeared excellent at her three-month evaluation, we emphasized that she had not yet achieved the full effect of her operation. As with all procedures of this type, complete results required at least six to nine months.

Differences from traditional facelift techniques became evident at one year, when results of routine facelift procedures generally began to diminish, particularly in the neck. Instead of simply tightening the skin, I mobilized and repositioned Cheryl’s deeper facial & neck layers as a single unit.

This achieved continuous improvement of results over time and avoided the appearance of aging or loss of youthful appearance quickly.

Because of these differences in technique, her facial contours remained well defined a year later, her neck continued to appear smooth, and her eyes retained their youthful appearance. The overall effect was to produce a completely natural appearance similar to that of a younger version of herself, rather than that of a different person. The duration and apparent naturalness of the results were entirely attributable to the techniques used.

Cheryl's Preservation Deep Plane Facelift Journey with Dr. Sadati

“While I feel like I was aging gracefully in terms of my spirit and my attitude, I don’t think my face was keeping up with that. When you can finally have your face match how you feel inside, that’s when I can say you’re aging gracefully.”

Cheryl

Preservation Facelift Patient

She’d been aging gracefully in spirit for years. A preservation deep plane facelift, brow lift, eyelid surgery, and laser resurfacing finally gave her the face to match.

Why It Worked: The Preservation Difference

What Cheryl experienced in that first year is precisely the result that should be achieved with the preservation deep-plane technique: results that improve over time, not those that eventually fade.

Over more than 22 years and more than 5,000 facelifts and neck lifts, Dr. Kevin Sadati has become one of the country’s most skilled facelift surgeons with exactly that goal: long-lasting results, not just good results on day one. As a result, patients such as Cheryl travel from other states to receive a facelift that will last 10 to 15 years instead of requiring a redo within a couple of years. Indeed, in her own words, Cheryl said that other than the extent of the surgical procedure, cosmetic surgery is really not very different from having your hair colored or your nails done. It is simply another method of caring for yourself.

All facelifts performed at Dr. Sadati’s practice are based on this same simple concept of care for those aspects of yourself that are always worth preserving.
Cheryl’s journey wasn’t perfect, and that’s exactly why it’s worth telling. Healing isn’t always a straight line, but the destination, a face that finally matches who you’ve been all along, is worth the trip. If her story sounds like yours, a private consultation with Dr. Kevin Sadati is where it starts.

Call (949) 694-7657 or schedule a consultation with Dr. Kevin Sadati to learn whether a preservation facelift is right for you.

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Take the first step toward your transformation with Dr. Kevin Sadati, one of Orange County’s most trusted facial plastic surgeons. Schedule your private consultation today and discover how his expertise can help you achieve your aesthetic goals.

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