Two Faces, Two Directions
Accumulation or Depletion
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Real Patients of Dr. Lynam
Face & Neck Lift · 3 Months After
Face & Neck Lift · Before and After
Individual results vary.
The Accumulation Pattern
Some faces thicken with time. Fat accumulates and shifts downward, features soften and blur, the jawline loses its edge, and fullness collects under the chin and in the neck. The face can look heavier, tired, or “jowly” even at a healthy weight.
For an accumulating face, the custom plan is about refinement: removing and repositioning fullness, redefining the jawline and neck, and letting the underlying bone structure show again. Deep plane repositioning of the deeper layer, often paired with neck work, does most of the work here.
You may be accumulating if your face feels fuller or heavier than it used to, your jawline has softened, or you’ve developed fullness under the chin or a “double” contour in the neck.
The Depletion Pattern
Other faces lose volume. Fat pads in the cheeks and midface shrink and descend, the temples and under-eyes hollow, and skin that once had support beneath it begins to drape, fold, and sag. The face can look gaunt, drawn, or simply deflated, older in a way that adding tightness alone won’t fix.
For a depleting face, the plan is about restoration: lifting and re-draping the deeper layers so the remaining volume sits where it belongs, and often restoring lost volume so the result looks rested rather than stretched. A skin-only pull on a depleted face is exactly how a facelift ends up looking “done.”
You may be depleting if your cheeks have flattened or hollowed, folds have deepened around the mouth, or your skin seems to have “outgrown” the support beneath it.
Most Faces Are a Mix, and Every Region Has Its Own Answer
Very few faces are purely one or the other. More often the midface is depleting while the neck is accumulating, or the cheeks are hollow while the jowls are heavy. That’s why a facelift can’t be one standard operation. Each region has to be read on its own terms.
The neck makes this obvious. A full, heavy neck (excess fat and fullness) and a loose, lax neck (slack skin and visible platysmal banding) look different, feel different, and are corrected differently. One patient needs contouring; the other needs the deeper muscle and skin repositioned. Same complaint (“my neck”), two different procedures.
Why This Matters for Your Result
In a consultation, Dr. Lynam reads your face region by region, tells you which pattern you’re in, and shows you what a custom plan would, and wouldn’t, change.
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