Looking in a mirror one day and saying to oneself, “My face looks so much older than I feel. How can I do something about it?” triggers a process of self analysis, investigation of (many) surgical and non-surgical options, and several difficult decisions.  Not the least of these is deciding how best to spend your resources to best effect.  It’s important to determine which of your facial features currently draw the most attention to your face and how those features could be improved.

Ask yourself:

• Were your eyes once your most attractive feature but now they appear tired or drawn?
• Were your cheeks once firm and rosy but now sag and appear hollow?
• When once your smile lifted at the corners, does it now struggle against folds of skin at each side of your mouth?
• Does your once smooth and defined jawline appear soft and droopy?

Pull out the family albums and examine photographs of your face over the past ten years (or more) to help you decide what you can gracefully accept in the aging process and what bothers you the most.

Set Goals and Find a Partner

Whether you decide it’s your facial lines and wrinkles, forehead and brow, eyes, nose, jaw or chin, set some priorities or goals before you schedule a consultation with a board certified plastic surgeon. That will enable you to target your questions and make the best use of the information your surgeon will give you. Take your photographs with you.

Be prepared to learn about an amazing array of surgical and non-surgical procedures and products to choose from. Make your surgeon your partner in deciding what would best achieve your objectives.