Dr. Jeffrey Raval Offers A New Facelift Procedure: The Tragus Facelift

Facial rejuvention techniques have changed dramatically in the last decade. Once a procedure that addressed only soft tissue and wrinkling skin, the 21st-century facelift is longer-lasting and probes deeper – to the facial muscles and skelton.

Another major innovation in facial surgery is the placement of incisions. The determination of the appropriate place for incisions is highly individual, says Denver plastic surgeon Jeffrey Raval, MD, FACS. Only the most skilled plastic surgeons in the United States are offering patients the innovative and highly-intricate Tragus facelift, a procedure Dr. Raval uses on patients who are well suited to this type of surgery. Unlike standard facelift procedures, the plastic surgeon performing a Tragus facelift makes no incisions to the front of the ear. Instead, incisions are made just inside the ear.

Both ear topography and the sex of the patient impact the decision to opt for a Tragus facelift, says Dr. Raval, who is trained and boarded in both plastic surgery and ear/nose/throat, meaning that he is skilled in both external and internal ramifications of a facelift. Men are not generally good candidates for a Tragus facelift because of the male tendency to develop hair growth in the ears.

There are advantages and disadvantages in where any incision is placed, and Dr. Raval is adept at either the Tragus or traditional facelift incisions (in front of and behind the ear).

Although not suitable in every case,  those who most benefit from a Tragus facelift are patients who suffer from kelloids, people with short hair, and those who prefer wearing their hair in an upsweep style. Dr. Raval says the only possible (and rare) downside to incisions in the tragus, is that the small resulting scars could alter the shape of the tragus.

The tragus is the small pointed prominence of the external ear, situated in front of the immediate inside of the ear. Tragus comes from the Greek, tragos, which means goat, and is descriptive of the general covering on its under surface, with a tuft of hair, resembling a goat’s beard.