SMAS Facelift vs Deep Plane Facelift

The difference in one answer

What separates a SMAS facelift from a deep plane facelift?

The short answer

Both operate on the SMAS, the fibrous fascial layer under the skin and fat that carries the tension of the face. In a SMAS facelift the skin is lifted as one flap and the SMAS is handled as a second, separate layer that is tightened and fixed. In a deep plane facelift, as the technique is described in the surgical literature, the surgeon passes beneath the SMAS early and keeps skin and SMAS joined as one composite flap across the cheek, releasing the retaining ligaments from below so the whole unit moves together.

Rewind's published full lift sits between the two labels in one respect: its steps raise the skin first, then open the SMAS, release the retaining ligaments beneath it and raise the fascia as its own flap. The clinic describes this as a SMAS-layer operation and does not call it a deep plane facelift, so this page does not either.

The description of Rewind's operation is taken from the clinic's Korean surgical page for full facial lifting. Descriptions of the deep plane technique come from the papers listed at the foot of this page. How far beneath the SMAS the dissection extends for a given face is not published and is confirmed at consultation.

The debate between the two techniques is older than most of the patients reading about it. A 1990 paper introduced the deep-plane rhytidectomy as a way of moving the cheek with its skin still attached; SMAS techniques had been developed from the 1976 anatomical description of the layer itself. Surgeons have argued since about which lasts longer, which looks more natural and which carries more risk to the facial nerve.

For a patient the useful question is narrower: what will actually be done to my face, in which plane, and by whom. That question can be answered at an examination, and the sections below set out what to ask.

Point by point

Five points where SMAS and deep plane facelifts part ways

Neither technique is a single fixed recipe; each surgeon adapts it. The points below describe the techniques as the literature presents them, and note where Rewind's published operation sits.

01Flap

One composite flap, or two separate layers

Deep plane: skin and SMAS move as one unit across the cheek. SMAS lift: the skin is raised on its own and the fascia is tightened as a second layer. Rewind publishes the two-layer sequence.

02Ligaments

How much is released, and from which side

Ligament release from beneath the SMAS is the centre of the deep plane description. Rewind also releases the retaining ligaments beneath the fascia before raising its SMAS flap, according to its own surgical steps.

03Entry

Where the SMAS is opened

A 2018 study of fourteen patients measured more vertical and horizontal tissue movement along the jaw line when the SMAS was entered higher on the face than at the standard point. Rewind does not publish its entry point.

04Nerve

How close the dissection runs to the facial nerve

Working beneath the SMAS brings the surgeon nearer to the motor branches of the facial nerve, whose depth is predictable in three dimensions. That is a reason for care in either technique.

05Outcome

What pooled studies report

A 2025 meta-analysis of 21 studies and 2,896 patients found satisfaction of 94.4 percent for deep plane and 87.8 percent for SMAS lifts, with overall complication rates of 17.2 and 10.3 percent. Both techniques were judged to give robust, long-term results.

Pricing

Does the facelift technique change the price at Rewind?

Rewind's fee sheet lists facelift operations by scope. There is no separate line for a deep plane facelift, because the clinic does not publish one; the plane used within a full lift is a surgical decision inside the listed operation.

Fees shown before VAT, anaesthetic fee counted in. Whichever facelift listing applies is written into your plan at consultation.

So the comparison on this page is a surgical one. Whether your plan reads ₩9,000,000 or ₩14,000,000 depends on how far the descent reaches, not on the name of a technique.

Recovery

Recovery after Rewind's SMAS facelift, stage by stage

Recovery claims for one technique over the other are hard to compare across studies. What can be stated is what Rewind records for its own full lift, which is the operation you would be having here.

Either technique carries surgical risk: bleeding, haematoma, infection, prolonged swelling, asymmetry, numbness, facial nerve injury and scarring among them. Tell the surgeon about any earlier facial surgery and every medication before a date is agreed. Individual results vary.

Questions

SMAS vs deep plane facelift: what patients ask