A face that recognises you again.

The aim of face surgery as practised here is precisely that you should not. Restraint, conservative dosing of any volume change, anatomical placement of incisions, and a willingness to refuse over-treatment are all part of the plan. The result, properly done, is registered by other people as “you look well” — not as “you have had work done”.

In well-placed face-surgery incisions — eyelid creases, inside the nostril, around the ear, within the hairline, on the inside of the lower eyelid — scars are usually nearly invisible at twelve months. Scar maturation takes up to a year. Scar quality is partly biological and varies between patients; this is discussed openly during consent.

Most face procedures require seven to ten days before bruising and swelling have settled enough for ordinary social activity. Photography-quality recovery takes longer — usually three to six weeks for small procedures and several months for a facelift. The written plan you take home includes a procedure-specific recovery timeline.

Smaller procedures (blepharoplasty, lip lift, otoplasty, lipofilling) are performed under local anaesthesia with light sedation, day surgery, home the same day. Larger procedures (rhinoplasty, facelift, mid-face lift, mentoplasty with sliding genioplasty) are performed under general anaesthesia, usually with a single overnight stay.

Sometimes — and when it can, we say so. Hyaluronic-acid filler, botulinum toxin, biostimulators, peels, energy-based devices and threads have a real role in the early signs of ageing and in patients whose anatomy doesn’t yet require surgery. Where a surgical change is the right answer, no non-surgical treatment can reproduce it; conservative non-surgical work can however delay the moment surgery becomes the right answer.

A rhinoplasty performed for aesthetic indications is a substantially less painful operation than most patients expect. The post-operative course is dominated by social downtime — a small protective splint on the dorsum for about a week, and bruising and swelling around the eyes that take seven to ten days to resolve — rather than by pain. Real pain in the days after surgery should always be reported.

A cervico-facial (lower-face and neck) lift addresses the mid-face, jawline and neck. A temporal lift addresses the lateral brow and upper face. A zygomatic lift addresses the cheek and mid-face. Many patients are best served by a single targeted lift rather than a full facelift, especially before sixty. The choice is anatomical, not chronological.

No. Lipofilling restores volume; a lift restores position. Where descended soft tissue is the principal change, lift surgery is the right answer; where lost volume is the principal change, lipofilling is. Many patients benefit from both, planned together. They are not interchangeable.

There is no single age. Otoplasty is most commonly performed in older children and adolescents. Rhinoplasty is most often performed between the late teens and the forties. Blepharoplasty most commonly between the late forties and seventies. Facelifts most commonly between fifty and seventy. The right age is the age at which the anatomical change is present and the patient is psychologically ready.

Cost depends on the procedure, the operating-room time, the type of anaesthesia, and the case complexity. After your first consultation, once a procedure has been recommended, you receive a written, itemised estimate. There are no hidden fees, and the department does not negotiate on price.