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  • One year out & fear the...

One year out & fear the tightness, burning and chocking feeling is permanent

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  • Easygoing77286
  • Sanger, California
  • Created: May 13, 2025

I am 12 months post-deep plane facelift, and though my face does not look stretched out, my skin feels numb under my chin, jaw, and in front of my ears. Yet I feel constant tightness and pulling sensations in my face, particularly around my mouth, when I speak. I feel as if there is a band around the bottom of my face pulling and choking me. 

Initially, it felt like things were healing, but then they started getting worse at around the 8-month mark, and I asked my plastic surgeon if it could be due to scar tissue forming. I saw a neurologist and had an MRI and a sonogram done to rule out any neurological issues. The conclusion is that what I am feeling is due to the facelift.

My surgon is always very empathetic and says things like the buck stops with me and that she will see me through this, however when I voiced my concern at 8 months post op she also said she has never had a patient who didn't heal up within a year. Then, when I went to see her at the one-year mark, she said she had two patients who took almost 2 years to heal. So I don't know if she is saying things to placate me. I would love to believe that I will recover; however, I am afraid that I will not because I haven't experienced any improvement whatsoever. 

I am hoping someone on this forum could tell me the odds of recovering normal sensation and/or what steps I can take to get some improvement. It is horrible to have to live this way. 

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