The following glossary contains cosmetic terms and information you should know about a facelift. Read on if you or a loved one is planning to have a facelift procedure.
Aging: The process of becoming older, a process that is genetically determined and environmentally modulated.
Autologous: In blood transfusion and transplantation, a situation in which the donor and recipient are the same person.
Blepharoplasty: Plastic surgery on the eyelids. Blepharoplasty may be done to correct ptosis (sagging eyelids), remove fatty bulges around the eyes, and eliminate hanging skin from the eyelids.
Blood: The familiar red fluid in the body that contains white and red blood cells, platelets, proteins, and other elements. The blood is transported throughout the body by the circulatory system. Blood functions in two directions: arterial and venous. Arterial blood is the means by which oxygen and nutrients are transported to tissues while venous blood is the means by which carbon dioxide and metabolic by-products are transported to the lungs and kidneys, respectively, for removal from the body.
Cheek: The side of the face forming the side wall of the mouth.
Chin: Medically, the mentum. The lower portion of the face below the lower lip including the prominence of the lower jaw and the line of fusion of the two separate halves of the jawbone ( mandible ). This line of fusion (called the symphysis menti) encloses a triangular area at tip of the chin (termed the mental protuberance). On each side, below the second premolar tooth, is the mental foramen , an opening for the passage of blood vessels and a nerve that supply the chin.
Connective tissue: A material made up of fibers forming a framework and support structure for body tissues and organs. Connective tissue surrounds many organs. Cartilage and bone are specialized forms of connective tissue. All connective tissue is derived from mesoderm, the middle germ cell layer in the embryo.
Drain: A device for removing fluid from a cavity or wound. A drain is typically a tube or wick.
Dysfunction: Difficult function or abnormal function.
Ear: The hearing organ. There are three sections of the ear, according to the anatomy textbooks. They are the outer ear (the part we see along the sides of our head behind the temples), the middle ear, and the inner ear. But in terms of function, the ear has four parts: those three and the brain. Hearing thus involves all parts of the ear as well as the auditory cortex of the brain. The external ear helps concentrate the vibrations of air on the ear drum and make it vibrate. These vibrations are transmitted by a chain of little bones in the middle ear to the inner ear. There they stimulate the fibers of the auditory nerve to transmit impulses to the brain.
Eyelid: The lid or cover of the eye, a movable fold of skin and muscle that can be closed over the eyeball or opened at will. Each eye has an upper and a lower lid. An eyelid is also called a palpebra.
Facelift: A surgical procedure designed to make the face appear younger by pulling loose facial skin taut. With age or excessive sun exposure, wrinkled creased skin can develop on the face, neck or forehead along with fat deposits and folds around the jaws and jowls. While a facelift cannot stop the aging process, it may "turn back the clock" in appearance. Recovery time is usually 1 week, and the results last approximately 10 years. Additional procedures to supplement a facelift -- including necklift, blepharoplasty (eyelid surgery), liposuction, autologous fat injection, removal of buccal (cheek) fat pads, forehead lift, and browlift; chemical or laser peel; and malar (cheek), submalar, or chin implants -- may be necessary to achieve the desired results. Although they are infrequent, risks and complications of facelift surgery include bleeding; hematoma; bruising; infection; neurological dysfunction (loss of muscle function or sensation), which is usually temporary; widened or thickened scars; loss of hair around the incision site; asymmetry (unevenness between two sides); and skin necrosis (loss of skin due to tissue death).
Fascia: A flat band of tissue below the skin that covers the underlying tissues and separates different layers of tissue. Fascia encloses muscles. Inflammation of the fascia is referred to as fasciitis.
Fat: 1 Along with proteins and carbohydrates, one of the three nutrients used as energy sources by the body. The energy produced by fats is 9 calories per gram. Proteins and carbohydrates each provide 4 calories per gram. 2 Total fat; the sum of saturated, monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats. Intake of monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats can help reduce blood cholesterol when substituted for saturated fats in the diet. 3 A slang term for obese or adipose. 4 In chemistry, a compound formed from chemicals called fatty acids. These fats are greasy, solid materials found in animal tissues and in some plants. Fats are the major component of the flabby material of a body, commonly known as blubber.
Hematoma: An abnormal localized collection of blood in which the blood is usually clotted or partially clotted and is usually situated within an organ or a soft tissue space, such as within a muscle.
Incision: A cut. When making an incision, a surgeon is making a cut.
Infection: The growth of a parasitic organism within the body. (A parasitic organism is one that lives on or in another organism and draws its nourishment therefrom.) A person with an infection has another organism (a "germ") growing within him, drawing its nourishment from the person.
Laser: A powerful beam of light that can produce intense heat when focused at close range. Lasers are used in medicine in microsurgery, cauterization, for diagnostic purposes, etc. For example, lasers are employed in microsurgery to cut tissue and remove tissue.
Liposuction: The most common cosmetic operation in the U. S. with over 400,000 such surgical operations done annually, liposuction involves the surgical suctioning of fat deposits from specific parts of the body, the most common being the abdomen (the "tummy"), buttocks ("behind"), hips, thighs and knees, chin, upper arms, back, and calves.
Malar: Referring to the cheek.
Muscle: Muscle is the tissue of the body which primarily functions as a source of power. There are three types of muscle in the body. Muscle which is responsible for moving extremities and external areas of the body is called "skeletal muscle." Heart muscle is called "cardiac muscle." Muscle that is in the walls of arteries and bowel is called "smooth muscle."
Necrosis: The death of living cells or tissues. Necrosis can be due, for example, to ischemia (lack of blood flow). From the Greek "nekros" (dead body).
Neurological: Having to do with the nerves or the nervous system.
Outpatient: A patient who is not an inpatient (not hospitalized) but instead is cared for elsewhere -- as in a doctor's office, clinic, or day surgery center. The term outpatient dates back at least to 1715. Outpatient care today is also called ambulatory care.
Pain: An unpleasant sensation that can range from mild, localized discomfort to agony. Pain has both physical and emotional components. The physical part of pain results from nerve stimulation. Pain may be contained to a discrete area, as in an injury, or it can be more diffuse, as in disorders like fibromyalgia . Pain is mediated by specific nerve fibers that carry the pain impulses to the brain where their conscious appreciation may be modified by many factors.
Sensation: In medicine and physiology , sensation refers to the registration of an incoming ( afferent ) nerve impulse in that part of the brain called the sensorium , which is capable of such perception. Therefore, the awareness of a stimulus as a result of its perception by sensory receptors. (Sensory is here synonymous with sensation.)
Skin: The skin is the body's outer covering. It protects us against heat and light, injury, and infection. It regulates body temperature and stores water, fat, and vitamin D. Weighing about 6 pounds, the skin is the body's largest organ. It is made up of two main layers; the outer epidermis and the inner dermis.
Surgeon: A physician who treats disease, injury, or deformity by operative or manual methods. A medical doctor specialized in the removal of organs, masses and tumors and in doing other procedures using a knife (scalpel). The definition of a "surgeon" has begun to blur in recent years as surgeons have begun to minimize the cutting, employ new technologies that are "minimally invasive," use scopes, etc.
Surgery: The word "surgery" has multiple meanings. It is the branch of medicine concerned with diseases and conditions which require or are amenable to operative procedures. Surgery is the work done by a surgeon. By analogy, the work of an editor wielding his pen as a scalpel is s form of surgery. A surgery in England (and some other countries) is a physician's or dentist's office.
Temporal: 1. Pertaining to time, limited in time, temporary, or transient. 2. Pertaining to the temple region of the head. The temporal lobe of the brain is located beneath the temple. From the Latin tempus which means both time and the temple of the head.
Tissue: A tissue in medicine is not like a piece of tissue paper. It is a broad term that is applied to any group of cells that perform specific functions. A tissue in medicine need not form a layer.