A face that still looks like you.
Dr. Kim sees Rochester-area patients for facelift and neck lift consultations at the historic Oliver Culver House on East Boulevard. Surgery takes place at the practice's AAAHC-accredited office-based suite in Syracuse, roughly ninety minutes away.
Since birth, the body ages with the passage of each year. The skin begins to wear out at its surface and thin from within as collagen and elastin begin to disappear. Beneath the skin, a series of fat compartments begin to lose volume and deflate. The retaining ligaments of the face — structures that act like the supporting cables of a suspension bridge — begin to weaken, allowing the SMAS (superficial musculoaponeurotic system) and the fat it supports to descend. The result, visible from the outside, is a loss of the clear jawline boundary, a deepening of the fold between cheek and neck, and the appearance of jowls where the ligaments have given way.
A facelift addresses this directly: the skin is elevated, the SMAS is repositioned, and the retaining ligaments are either tightened or released and reset, depending on the technique. The skin is then redraped over the corrected deeper structure without tension. The aim is a face that reflects how the patient feels inside rather than a tighter version of the same face.
For the full technique spectrum from mini biplane SMAS to extended deep plane, see our full facelift overview. The Rochester consultation covers which approach the individual anatomy calls for.
A facelift is a specific solution to a specific anatomic problem. Patients who are disappointed almost always arrive with a problem the procedure cannot solve.
Patients whose dominant finding is descended tissue — jowls, a heavy neck, a softened jawline, loose skin between the chin and chest — are the candidates a facelift was designed for. Skin quality matters less than tissue laxity, because the correction happens at the deeper layer. Health, controllable blood pressure, and willingness to stop smoking before and after surgery matter more than age; there is no upper age limit when health allows.
Patients arriving from Rochester, Buffalo, the Finger Lakes and across the western part of upstate New York represent a range of anatomy. The consultation identifies whether lifting, volume, resurfacing or some combination is the right sequence for that individual.
Patients whose primary concern is nasolabial folds, skin texture, sun damage, hollowness of the cheeks, or the appearance of the forehead and brows will not find those corrected by a facelift. The procedure works below the level of the eyes and in front of and under the ears; what is above that plane requires different treatment. Patients expecting a dramatic change in skin quality or a face that looks dramatically different should understand the procedure is a repositioning operation, not a resurfacing one.
Significant uncontrolled hypertension, active smoking that cannot be stopped, bleeding disorders and unrealistic expectations are the contraindications that matter most in practice.
The procedure takes place at the practice's accredited office-based suite in Syracuse, not at a hospital. That distinction carries practical consequences for patients traveling from Rochester.
Surgery is performed under local anesthesia with IV sedation — twilight sedation rather than general anesthesia. The practical consequence is a shorter operative day, no intubation, and a recovery that begins in the office rather than in a post-anesthesia care unit. A 2026 published series of 142 deep plane face and neck lifts performed under local anesthesia reported no major hematomas and no facial nerve injuries, which is consistent with the evidence base for this approach.
Patients travel to the Syracuse suite on the day of surgery and return the morning after for the first post-operative visit, at which the compression dressing is removed and the incisions are checked. Long-term follow-up appointments — at two weeks, one month, and beyond — can take place at the Rochester office, which reduces the need for repeated ninety-minute drives during the months after surgery.
For Rochester patients who wish to stay close to the practice during the first days of recovery, we can advise on lodging in the East Syracuse area. Some patients from as far as Buffalo arrange a multi-night stay and find the logistics straightforward once the schedule is laid out.
Times below reflect what most patients report and what the published literature describes. Individual variation is real; some patients move through faster, some slower.
Head elevation, minimal activity, ice application to reduce swelling. The compression dressing is in place. Tightness and numbness are normal. Pain is usually mild; most patients describe pressure more than sharp pain. A responsible adult must be present overnight.
Dressing removed at the morning-after visit. Swelling and bruising peak around days three to five. Rest indoors is the plan for the first week; short, easy walks are permitted. No driving while on prescription pain medication. Sutures are removed at staged visits. Numbness in the lower face and neck is expected and is not a sign of nerve injury.
Bruising resolves in most patients by the end of week two. Swelling is still present but concentrated. Most patients feel comfortable going out in public with light coverage. Strenuous activity, heavy lifting and bending forward remain off the schedule. Return to sedentary work is usually possible by the second week.
Most of the visible healing has occurred. A photographic follow-up visit at one to two months tracks the result. Some patients still notice firmness and mild swelling, particularly under the chin; this is ordinary healing and not a complication. Sun protection on incisions during the first year reduces the chance of hyperpigmentation.
The result continues to settle. Final skin texture, residual firmness and minor asymmetries in swelling resolve over this period. Most patients feel their result is presentable well before this point; the six-month photograph typically documents a more refined version of what was visible at two months.
Swelling on one side that is rapidly increasing, tightening, or associated with spreading redness in the hours after surgery needs a call immediately. One-sided swelling that grows quickly in the first 24 to 48 hours is a hematoma until proven otherwise. The office number is 315-471-8404; an on-call physician covers after hours.
Questions about the Rochester consultation process, travel logistics, and the procedure itself.
Yes. Dr. Kim holds consultations and follow-up appointments at the Rochester office on East Boulevard. The initial evaluation, photograph review and surgical planning all happen there. Surgery takes place at the practice's AAAHC-accredited office-based suite in Syracuse; most patients arrange a short stay near the Syracuse suite for the first nights of recovery.
The drive from Rochester to the Syracuse surgical suite is roughly ninety minutes. We schedule pre-operative appointments in Rochester so that patients make that drive only once, on the day of surgery. We can advise on lodging near the practice for patients who prefer to stay overnight in the area before returning home.
Yes. The Rochester office is about seventy-five minutes from Buffalo, and the consultation is typically ninety minutes. Many patients from Buffalo, Canandaigua, Victor and the western Finger Lakes use the Rochester office rather than traveling directly to Syracuse. We accommodate day-trip consultations for patients traveling from a distance.
It corrects descended and loose tissue of the lower face and neck. The skin and the layer beneath it, the SMAS (superficial musculoaponeurotic system), are elevated and resuspended, restoring jawline definition and the chin-neck angle. It does not add volume, improve skin texture, or change the upper face; those are separate problems with separate treatments.
Nasolabial folds are the most common misunderstanding. The only randomized within-patient trial found that any fold improvement visible on the table was gone within 24 hours; blinded surgeons could not distinguish the two sides at six and twelve months. Folds arise from volume loss and are treated separately, with fat transfer or filler rather than lifting.
No. The procedure is performed under local anesthesia with IV sedation at the practice's accredited office-based surgical suite in Syracuse. General anesthesia is not required and is not used. A 2026 published series of 142 deep plane face and neck lifts under local anesthesia reported no major hematomas and no facial nerve injuries.
The best evidence is the time patients wait before requesting a second procedure: a mean of 10.7 years in a matched study of 194 patients, and 9.0 years in a series of 811. Nine to eleven years is a reasonable expectation. No technique has been shown in controlled studies to outlast another in durability.
Hematoma, bleeding under the skin flap, is the most common serious complication: 2.7% overall and 0.97% requiring drainage across 8,841 patients in one large analysis. Permanent facial nerve injury is rare at 0.047% across 15,404 patients. Other risks include infection, skin healing problems, widened scars, prolonged numbness and, in a minority, a result that warrants revision.
The compression dressing is removed at the first post-operative visit, the morning after surgery. Most patients spend the first week resting indoors. Swelling and bruising are expected and peak in the first few days. Social presentability for most patients is around two to three weeks; final results continue settling for several months. Numbness in the lower face and neck is normal and resolves gradually.
We ask patients to remain within reach of the practice for the first post-operative visit the morning after surgery and for at least the first few days thereafter. Most Rochester patients plan for a short stay near the Syracuse area before returning home. The schedule for return travel is discussed individually and depends on the extent of the procedure.
Blepharoplasty and facial fat transfer are the procedures most commonly combined with a facelift at this practice. Combining them means one anesthetic, one recovery period, and a more proportionate overall result in most cases. The consultation identifies what the anatomy warrants and what is realistic to accomplish in a single session.
Volume loss and structural descent call for different treatments. Fillers replace lost volume in the cheeks or temples; they cannot lift tissue that has descended or redefine a jawline that has lost its boundary. When significant laxity is present alongside volume loss, adding volume alone tends to look unnatural, and lifting is what the anatomy calls for. The consultation sorts this out.
The Rochester office at 70 East Boulevard serves patients from Rochester, Buffalo, the Finger Lakes and across western upstate New York. Explore our Rochester office page for directions and what to expect, or visit our Syracuse surgical home to learn about the operative suite.
4939 Brittonfield Pkwy, Bldg B, Ste 208
East Syracuse, NY 13057
Surgery and main office
347 E 53rd St, Suite Lobby A
New York, NY 10022
Consultations and follow-up
"My only regret was that I didn't do it sooner. I had a natural facelift and blepharoplasty about 3 months ago. I just wanted to look as young as I feel. Dr. Kim is a wonderful surgeon and a very lovely person. I felt total confidence in his care."
"Dr. Kim is the only plastic surgeon that I'm completely comfortable with and trust. He performed a facelift that was so natural that people couldn't believe I had the surgery."
"At 63 years old having a facelift and necklift surgery was a huge decision to make. Dr. Kim Sang was very professional and explained everything in detail. I felt very comfortable there."