What about recovery and scarring?
What each scar claim rests on
How long you take to heal and how your scars look cannot be read off a brochure. Ask the practice to write out its recovery plan and its scar claims, and to say what each claim rests on.
Minimal for whom, hidden from where
Two facelift claims to quote here are "minimal downtime" and "hidden scars." I quote them because both sound specific and neither is. Minimal for whom? Hidden from which angle, and at what stage of healing?
A photo of a scar at one point in healing cannot answer a question about the whole course. I would ask which stage each photo shows and how long after surgery it was taken.
For background that is not a practice's own marketing, read a hospital patient page on the facelift operation and a medical school's page on face and neck lift. For scars in general, there is the StatPearls article on scar revision. If a practice promises that a scar will barely show, compare that promise with Cleveland Clinic's page on getting treatment for scars and ask what the practice would do if a scar healed poorly.
Downtime and scar questions
- Copy the practice's wording on downtime and scars.
- Ask what time frame "downtime" refers to and what daily activities it includes.
- Ask where the incisions are placed and how scars are treated if they heal poorly.
- Ask to see healing photos with the time since surgery labeled.
Uncertainty belongs in the answer
These recovery checks were not written by a surgeon and are not medical advice. A fair answer from a surgeon will be about your case and will say what is uncertain.