“What pain medication will I be prescribed after the facelift procedure?”
I will have a facelift. What pain medication will I be prescribed after the facelift procedure?
2 Answers
PlasticSurgeonPlasticSurgeon
My facelift patients use a combination of Tylenol and Advil, and this is more than enough for over 95% of this patient population and recovery. Occasionally I will prescribe something stronger as needed. In general facelift recovery is well tolerated.
Thank you for your question!
I usually give my patients Tylenol #3 since most of them don't have allergic reactions to codeine. They take it for only a few days; and many report to me that they feel no pain or minimal pain that they don't need to take it.
I want to take this opportunity to share with you my experience about postoperative pain. You know, I have learned a lot from my patients since I started doing Aesthetic Surgery. Thanks to my patients who have put their trust in me!
Thinking back to the days I was doing surgery rotations in medical school and residency, and then at the courses and workshops on skin cancer or breast cancer surgery, you know, we operate on diseased tissues. We need to cut the tumors out and very often including the surrounding skin and soft tissues. This triggers inflammation process that causes pain during the healing, so we need to treat postoperative pain. We use this experience to apply to Aesthetic Surgery. Because of this when you think about surgery, you are afraid of the pain after the surgery.
Another reason for postoperative pain is that sometimes we have to cut the blood vessels and the nerves in the field to remove the tumors. To control bleeding we need to burn the tissue with cauterization. This will cause pain. And strangling the tissue also causes pain. Doing Aesthetic Surgery we operate on healthy and living tissues; so we just need to be very careful not to cut and burn blood vessels and surrounding tissue to control bleeding. You don't want to kill the blood supply to the tissue and to the skin or damage it directly. This will cause more pain and prolong the healing process.
Most of you have some experience cutting yourself on your hand when you were chopping vegetables or cutting a piece of meat_I often did it to myself when I learned cooking, preparing a meal for myself. You know, you feel an acute pain; and if you don't cut through the muscle and traumatize the soft tissue under your skin, or get an infection after, you don't need to take pain med during the healing process. Your skin will heal uneventfully. If you need stitches to close the skin, you may feel some pain because the sutures may cause irritating and inflammation. When I cut your skin, I will cause an acute pain; so I need to anesthetize the area when doing it. I try not to cause a big bleeding, so I don't need to cauterize or tie off the severed vessel. In fact, I rarely need cauterization when doing surgery now.
You don't ask me this, but for liposuction and fat grafting procedures, most of my patients don't take pain med after the surgery. Now fat grafting and liposculpting are often parts of my facelift procedure.
I may give you a bit more information than you want. Thank you for listening!
Khiem Lai, MD
Aesthetic Physician and Surgeon
I usually give my patients Tylenol #3 since most of them don't have allergic reactions to codeine. They take it for only a few days; and many report to me that they feel no pain or minimal pain that they don't need to take it.
I want to take this opportunity to share with you my experience about postoperative pain. You know, I have learned a lot from my patients since I started doing Aesthetic Surgery. Thanks to my patients who have put their trust in me!
Thinking back to the days I was doing surgery rotations in medical school and residency, and then at the courses and workshops on skin cancer or breast cancer surgery, you know, we operate on diseased tissues. We need to cut the tumors out and very often including the surrounding skin and soft tissues. This triggers inflammation process that causes pain during the healing, so we need to treat postoperative pain. We use this experience to apply to Aesthetic Surgery. Because of this when you think about surgery, you are afraid of the pain after the surgery.
Another reason for postoperative pain is that sometimes we have to cut the blood vessels and the nerves in the field to remove the tumors. To control bleeding we need to burn the tissue with cauterization. This will cause pain. And strangling the tissue also causes pain. Doing Aesthetic Surgery we operate on healthy and living tissues; so we just need to be very careful not to cut and burn blood vessels and surrounding tissue to control bleeding. You don't want to kill the blood supply to the tissue and to the skin or damage it directly. This will cause more pain and prolong the healing process.
Most of you have some experience cutting yourself on your hand when you were chopping vegetables or cutting a piece of meat_I often did it to myself when I learned cooking, preparing a meal for myself. You know, you feel an acute pain; and if you don't cut through the muscle and traumatize the soft tissue under your skin, or get an infection after, you don't need to take pain med during the healing process. Your skin will heal uneventfully. If you need stitches to close the skin, you may feel some pain because the sutures may cause irritating and inflammation. When I cut your skin, I will cause an acute pain; so I need to anesthetize the area when doing it. I try not to cause a big bleeding, so I don't need to cauterize or tie off the severed vessel. In fact, I rarely need cauterization when doing surgery now.
You don't ask me this, but for liposuction and fat grafting procedures, most of my patients don't take pain med after the surgery. Now fat grafting and liposculpting are often parts of my facelift procedure.
I may give you a bit more information than you want. Thank you for listening!
Khiem Lai, MD
Aesthetic Physician and Surgeon
