Facelift Instruments

Facelift instruments by surgical step

Undermining the flap: facelift scissors

In a facelift the skin flap is undermined, separated from the deeper tissues, in the subcutaneous plane with a scalpel or scissors. Most facelift scissors here are double-beveled with semi-sharp outer edges, and many are Supercut or carry tungsten carbide edges: the Gorney, Gorney-Freeman, Kaye, Kahn, Rees and Wilkinson patterns, the Gorney facelift scissors set of two, straight and curved, the Trepsat dissection scissors with spatulated tips, and the long Gorney-Freeman platysma scissors for the neck. PAR, Peck-Joseph and Jabaley scissors serve finer dissection. How the patterns differ is on Plastic Surgery Scissors.

Holding the flap: face lift retractors

The Biggs face lift retractor has a fenestrated blade with a contoured lip and is made with and without fiber optics. The Ferreira face lift retractor also comes in a fiber optic version, and the Freeman flap retractor holds the flap in its bend, with a light guide on the blade. The coronal brow lift retractor has seven sharp offset prongs for the coronal scalp flap. See Plastic Surgery Retractors & Skin Hooks.

Endoscopic forehead, brow and midface lift

The endoscopic forehead lift works through several small scalp incisions, in the subgaleal or subperiosteal plane, with long instruments under endoscopic view. The Daniel pattern has scalp and suction elevators, nerve dissectors and nerve hooks, an orbital rim dissector, scissors, grasping forceps and a knife handle; the Ramirez series names its dissectors by region — frontoglabellar, frontotemporal, temporal line and arcus marginalis. The Graivier mid-face dissector, hockey-stick shaped, works over the maxilla and zygoma. The Ramirez midface fascia dissector is the facelift dissector of the endoscopic series, beside the Ramirez zygomatic arch elevator and the malleable tungsten carbide Del Campo dissector. See Endoscopic Brow Lift Instruments.

Skin edges: fine forceps

The Adson-Brown tissue forceps have Brown teeth, rows of small side-grasping teeth that give many fixation points on the skin edge; tungsten carbide Adson forceps and the Beasley-Babcock tissue forceps are also here. See Plastic Surgery Thumb Forceps.

Eyelid clamps

Three eyelid clamps sit in this category: the Putterman ptosis clamp for Müller's muscle-conjunctival resection, the Putterman-Gladstone transmarginal clamp for entropion repair, and the reverse-action Uzcategui clamp with a screw lock. See Ring Forceps & Clamps.

What are facelift instruments used for?

Face lift instruments serve rhytidectomy (skin flap undermining in the face and neck, platysma work), the endoscopic forehead and brow lift, where the supraorbital and supratrochlear neurovascular bundles are found and preserved, the endoscopic midface lift, and coronal scalp flaps; the eyelid clamps serve ptosis and entropion surgery. Facelift instruments for one operation are also sold together in Facelift Instrument Sets.

How BusinessMed facelift instruments are made

Each instrument is made of German stainless steel with a satin, non-reflective finish; many scissors and forceps carry tungsten carbide inserts. They are reusable, autoclavable and covered by a 5-year warranty.