Deep Plane Face and Neck lifts – what does it mean?

The majority of face and neck lifts performed in our centre are ‘deep plane’. Patients often tell us they have tried to research these procedures but get confused with the terms used. To help you understand, we hope you find the below useful.

The ‘SMAS’ is a term used all over social media and plastic surgery websites. It’s an acronym for a layer under the facial skin that merges with a thin muscle directly under the skin in the neck. This whole layer is like a bed sheet, snugly covering all the major nerves and muscles of the face and neck that lie deeper.

There are many connections between this sheet and the skin directly on top of it. So we surgeons find that re-tightening this layer gives us a long lasting effect on the overlying skin and underlying ligaments.

Deep plane lifts do not simply use stitches to tighten this layer. The deep plane technique involves lifting up this SMAS ‘sheet’ and releasing it, in order to pull it tight again – taking the skin with it. 

In our experience this procedure gives us the best longevity without compromising a natural facial and neck appearance. We do not like results that obviously show a face that was operated on!