Facelift surgery is often described in terms of results rather than mechanics, leaving most patients with little sense of what actually happens beneath the skin. Understanding the anatomy behind Dr. Andrew Jacono’s extended deep-plane technique explains why it produces different outcomes than the conventional approach that preceded it.
Traditional facelifts work at the level of the superficial musculoaponeurotic system, often shortened to SMAS, the layer of tissue connecting facial muscles to the skin above. Surgeons using this method tighten the SMAS from above and pull skin taut over it, an approach that can produce a stretched appearance if tension is misjudged.
WORKING BENEATH THE SURFACE LAYER
Dr. Andrew Jacono‘s method instead operates beneath the SMAS entirely. Rather than pulling skin independently, the technique releases the facial ligaments that anchor tissue in place and repositions the midface, jawline, and neck as a single connected unit, moving structures vertically instead of stretching them sideways.
This distinction, working below the SMAS instead of tightening it, is the anatomical basis for nearly every outcome associated with the technique: lower complication rates, longer-lasting results, and incisions that heal less conspicuously. Each of those benefits traces back to the same underlying decision about which tissue layer to address.
WHY THE DEEPER APPROACH REDUCES COMPLICATIONS
Later research confirmed that operating beneath the SMAS carries a lower chance of facial nerve injury compared with more superficial techniques, largely because the dissection preserves anatomical relationships and blood supply that shallower methods can disrupt. For patients trying to understand why Dr. Andrew Jacono’s approach differs so markedly from a standard facelift, the answer lies less in surgical skill than in which layer of the face the surgeon chooses to address. Once that anatomical distinction is clear, the rest of the technique’s reputation, from its longer-lasting results to its shorter incisions, follows logically rather than reading like a list of unrelated selling points. Visit this page on LinkedIn, for more information.
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