Comprehensive Facelift in San Antonio, TX
Triple Board-Certified Facial Plastic Surgeon Dr. Jose Barrera‘s Comprehensive Facelift brings together today’s most advanced surgical techniques (including preservation deep plane facelift, deep neck contouring, brow lift, upper blepharoplasty, facial fat grafting, and CO₂ laser resurfacing) to refresh the entire face and neck in one meticulously planned procedure.
A comprehensive facelift differs from traditional facelifts, which primarily focus on tightening the superficial layers. A comprehensive facelift utilizes many techniques to restore the face’s structure, volume, and skin quality, starting at the deepest layers and extending to the skin. The goal is to achieve a face that looks younger and ages gracefully for years to come.
Dr. Barrera typically does over 50 comprehensive face and neck lifts each year. He is an expert at his craft and teaches his world-class facelift techniques at the Masters of Aging Face Surgery Course with Marina Medical, where he lectures alongside other leading global experts. His exceptional experience ensures patients can enjoy high-quality, personalized facelift results.
To learn more or schedule a consultation for a comprehensive facelift in Austin, TX, call (210) 468-5426 or contact us online. Virtual consultations are available in Texas from our San Antonio office.
What Is a Comprehensive Facelift?
A comprehensive facelift is a full-face rejuvenation strategy that addresses all major layers of facial aging. This includes repositioning the deeper facial structures, contouring the neck, elevating the brows, refining the eyes, restoring lost volume, and restoring skin quality.
At the core of Dr. Barrera’s approach is the preservation deep plane facelift, where the skin and SMAS layers are lifted together as a unified structure. By releasing key retaining ligaments only where necessary and repositioning the deeper tissues along natural vectors, this technique avoids the pulled, windswept look of older facelift styles. Instead, the midface appears naturally elevated, the jawline becomes more defined, and the cheeks regain youthful height and contour.
Dr. Barrera builds on this foundation with complementary procedures (deep neck lift, temporal or endoscopic brow lift, upper blepharoplasty, facial fat grafting, lip lift or lip enhancement, and full-face CO₂ laser resurfacing to create an integrated transformation that looks cohesive and authentic.
Why Patients Choose Dr. Barrera for Their Comprehensive Facelift
Patients seek out Dr. Barrera for his ability to deliver high-level aesthetic and structural results without sacrificing natural movement or expression. His facelift philosophy emphasizes:
- Natural Vector Repositioning
Rather than relying on skin tension, Dr. Barrera repositions deep tissues in the direction they originally descended. This restores youthful topography while maintaining facial identity. - Full-Face Harmony
A lifted jawline alone isn’t enough. Dr. Barrera evaluates the interplay between the brow, eyelids, midface, jawline, neck, perioral structures, and skin. Treating them as a unified aesthetic region produces smooth, balanced rejuvenation. - Teaching & Innovation
As a faculty member at the Masters of Aging Face Surgery Course, Dr. Barrera trains other surgeons in advanced deep plane, neck, and preservation techniques. His commitment to excellence and ongoing innovation is proven.
Components of the Comprehensive Facelift
This technique lifts the deeper facial layers as a single unit, maintaining natural attachments and blood supply. By addressing midface descent, sagging cheeks, and deep folds from the inside out, the deep plane method produces soft, structural results that last significantly longer than skin-based lifts
A youthful face depends on a well-defined neck. When the platysma, deep fat compartments, or underlying musculature contribute to fullness, a deep neck lift is essential. Dr. Barrera sculpts the neck from the inside, releasing platysmal bands, refining subplatysmal fat, and improving the cervicomental angle for a smooth and sculpted contour.
Brow descent contributes to heavy eyelids, tired expression, and loss of upper facial definition. Using small incisions and endotines for fixation, Dr. Barrera lifts the brow into a natural position without overcorrection, opening the eyes and rejuvenating the upper third of the face.
When excess upper eyelid skin remains after brow elevation, a conservative upper blepharoplasty can smooth the lid crease, refresh the eye shape, and enhance symmetry. Many patients benefit from combining this with the brow lift for optimal rejuvenation.
Youthful faces are defined by smooth transitions and convexity, qualities that diminish as deep fat pads decrease with age. Dr. Barrera uses micro- and nano-fat grafting to restore natural fullness to the cheeks, temples, tear troughs, perioral region, and jawline.
Based on published fat grafting and midface rejuvenation research, restoring the deep medial cheek fat pad, pyriform space, and ogee curve helps recreate youthful height and harmony in the midface. Fat grafting integrates seamlessly and can produce long-term volume restoration.
After repositioning the deeper structures, Dr. Barrera uses CO₂ laser resurfacing to refine the skin envelope. This powerful technology addresses wrinkles, crepiness, sun damage, and texture irregularities. Because it triggers collagen production, the skin becomes smoother, tighter, and more luminous over time.
A comprehensive facelift often includes subtle perioral rejuvenation. A lip lift shortens an elongated philtrum and enhances youthful tooth show, while fat grafting restores soft, natural fullness. These refinements complete the harmony of the lower face.
Related Facelift Blogs
What to Expect During Your Comprehensive Facelift
Your journey begins with an in-depth consultation and facial analysis. On the day of surgery, our board-certified anesthesia team ensures your comfort and safety while Dr. Barrera performs each step of your personalized plan. Because the procedure treats multiple facial layers at once, patients enjoy a more unified and balanced result than piecemeal treatments allow.
Most patients recover comfortably at home with support from our team, while out-of-town patients may select our concierge package for a seamless, elevated experience.
Service and gratitute are a part of my nature. Improving my patient's wellness in terms of breathing, sleep, and self-esteem gives me great satisfaction.
Recovery & Restorative Care after a Comprehensive Facelift
Recovery from a comprehensive facelift usually requires one to two weeks of social downtime. Swelling and bruising gradually improve, and patients typically return to normal activity within a couple of weeks. Deep plane results continue to refine over three to six months as tissues settle naturally.
Restorative Care Package (Included) at RejuveMD Recovery Center
Every comprehensive facelift includes a dedicated postoperative program featuring:
- Medical-grade skincare
- Two lymphatic massages
- Arnica and Bromelain
- Post-procedure Nd:YAG Laser or IPL as needed
- Access to RejuveMD Recovery Center
This structured healing plan supports comfort, reduces swelling, and enhances the longevity of your results.
Out-of-Town Patients: VIP Comprehensive Facelift Package
Patients nationwide travel to San Antonio for Dr. Barrera’s facelift expertise. For convenience and superior care, we offer a VIP comprehensive facelift package starting at $55,000, which includes:
- Surgery
- Anesthesia
- Surgical center fees
- Fat grafting
- CO₂ or Erbium laser resurfacing
- Restorative postoperative care
- Two lymphatic massages
- Black car pick-up and drop-off with 5Diamond Concierge Service
Visit our Out-of-Town page to learn more about accommodations and travel recommendations.
We transform lives when we remove a self-conscience obstacle for a patient. We transform lives when we help patients be the best version of themselves.
Virtual Consultations
Dr. Barrera offers virtual consultations for patients anywhere in Texas, allowing early planning and evaluation before traveling to San Antonio.
Schedule Your Comprehensive Facelift Consultation
Arrange a consultation with renowned San Antonio otolaryngologist and plastic surgeon Dr. Jose Barrera to get a glimpse of how much younger and more refreshed you can look with a comprehensive facelift. During your consultation, Dr. Barrera will find out more about your aesthetic goals and reveal the many options you can leverage.
Call (210) 468-5426 or contact us online to schedule your consultation today.
San Antonio Comprehensive Facelift FAQs
Deep plane results commonly last 10 to 15 years because the deeper facial layers are repositioned.
Absolutely. The goal is a younger, refreshed version of you.
Lifting corrects descent; fat grafting corrects deflation. Treating both achieves natural, harmonious rejuvenation.
Most patients feel comfortable returning to light activities within 10 to 14 days.
Yes. Procedures, recovery support, and transportation services can all be tailored to your needs.
While there is no “ideal age” for a comprehensive facelift, since aging patterns vary, most patients are in their mid-40s to 70s. This is typically when more profound structural changes like midface descent, neck skin sagging, and jowling occur. Dr. Barrera evaluates facial anatomy, bone support, skin elasticity, and the degree of deep-plane descent to determine whether a comprehensive facelift will achieve the most natural and lasting improvement.
tighten superficial tissues and offer only temporary improvement.
Dr. Barrera’s comprehensive facelift goes far beyond this by:
- Repositioning the deep facial layers (deep plane release)
- Contouring and re-vectoring the neck
- Restoring midface and lower face volume with fat grafting
- Improving skin texture and tone with CO₂ laser resurfacing
- Rejuvenating the eyes and brows when indicated
This multi-layered approach creates long-lasting structural rejuvenation, not just surface tightening, allowing results to look natural, elevated, and harmonious for 10 to 15 years or longer.
SMAS stands for the superficial musculoaponeurotic system, which is targeted during a SMAS facelift. Conversely, a deep plane facelift releases and adjusts (often lifting) the deeper retaining ligaments, which enables the cheeks, midface, and jawline to rise in a natural vector. This allows for a substantially improved look that doesn’t just rely on pulling the skin.
Dr. Barrera’s comprehensive facelift focuses on the most critical elements of facial aging: deep structures, volume, contour, and skin quality. His preservation deep plane approach lifts the deeper tissues along natural vectors to enhance midface height, jawline definition, and youthful proportions. He then enhances the result with tailored procedures such as deep neck contouring, brow elevation, eyelid refinement, fat grafting, and CO₂ laser resurfacing. This combination creates a balanced, natural-looking transformation that treats the entire face as one aesthetic unit and delivers results that age gracefully for years.
Yes. While lifting addresses structural descent, deep wrinkles around the mouth often improve most when combined with fat grafting, perioral laser resurfacing, or a lip lift, all of which are included as options within the comprehensive facelift plan.
Indirectly, yes. Midface elevation softens the lid-cheek junction, and fat grafting can add volume to the tear trough or upper cheek to further reduce hollowness. Many patients experience a brighter, smoother under-eye appearance without needing eyelid surgery.
As a comprehensive facelift treats multiple facial layers (including the deep plane, neck, eyes, brows, and skin), Dr. Barrera performs it under general anesthesia with a board-certified anesthesia team. Doing so ensures safety precautions are met, and your comfort is maintained throughout the entire procedure. In select cases where patients have a less extensive surgical plan, deep sedation with local anesthesia may be used. This is only determined on an individual basis during consultation.
With Dr. Barrera’s preservation-focused technique, incisions are placed along natural creases around the ear, within the hairline, and sometimes under the chin. This depends on the type of surgery included in your comprehensive lift. Dr. Barrera blends incisions naturally with your face’s contours so that once healed, they typically appear as inconspicuous lines that are difficult to notice, even up close. CO₂ laser resurfacing and advanced closure techniques further enhance scar refinement.
Yes. Dr. Barrera’s comprehensive facelift always includes a deep neck lift, which directly addresses loose skin, platysma banding, deep fat deposits, and underlying muscle laxity beneath the chin. He restores a smooth, defined neckline and a sharper jawline.
