Maggie McKay: Getting a facelift is a major commitment, the time, expense, recovery and more. But what if there was a mini facelift that could make you look 10 years younger in one hour? Dr. Eric Seger, board certified dermatologist and cosmetic surgeon is here to tell us all about the hour lift mini facelift. This is Top Docs podcast.

I'm your host, Maggie McKay. Welcome Dr. Seger. Would you please introduce yourself?

Eric Seiger, MD: Yeah. Hi, I'm Eric Seger. I've been a dermatologist and cosmetic surgeon since 1990 I've been doing these facelifts for the last 25 years, and, I have the best job in the world.

Maggie McKay: Apparently now. Why haven't we heard of them before this?

Eric Seiger, MD: yeah, I think actually I think lifestyle lift, about five years after I started doing them, started promoting them on television, so it became much more popular cuz they advertised a lot. they're not around anymore, but they made it okay for the average person to actually get a mini facelift.

Maggie McKay: Wow. Well, I'm sure some people hear this and they're maybe optimistically cautious because it sounds too good to be true, but you are here to tell us it is true and it does work, and you have 25 years to prove it. So for starters, can you tell us more about the hour lift, mini facelift, and how it differs from traditional plastic surgery methods?

Eric Seiger, MD: As a dermatologist, I've been doing, skin cancer surgeries and scalp productions and hair, transplants for years. And so I am used to cutting and moving skin. So my mini facelift or hour lift is actually a skin surgery. It's not plastic surgery. So plastic surgeons, when they do a facelift, they not only cut the skin, but they cut the muscles and they tighten and move the muscles around What happens when they do that is, number one, you have to be hospitalized. You have to go under general anesthesia and general anesthesia. if there's any problems that are gonna happen, the probability is it could happen because of the anesthesia. So I like to keep it safe. Mine is done in an office, also, they cut the muscles and move it, which means that when they move those muscles, The patients that could actually look different.

So when you see Kenny Rogers or Madonna and you look at 'em and they're, you're like, well, I don't wanna look like Joan Rivers. It's because their muscles are moved.

My surgery is done in the office. It's a skin procedure. So I. Get patients really comfortable with Valium and some Demerol, so they're nice and goofed up, but I don't put you to sleep.

So I keep it nice and safe. I also save the price of the surgical suite or the hospital cost, right? I, I keep it much more affordable. and then we numb you up. The patients don't feel a thing. I cut. I separate, so I undermine the skin and then I tighten the muscles with a special, procedure that keeps the muscles tight for five to 10 years without moving them.

I'm just tightening them the way that they were 10 years ago. I then cut the excess skin and then I sew up, and then what I do is because I can't. Take care of the mid face with my procedure. I then fill the med face usually with filler, which is like putting air in a tire and restoring the volume back to the face.

So, my patients look 10 years younger, look refreshed. They generally say they don't wanna look 20 years old again. They just wanna look how they feel and, that's what I get to deliver and I get to enjoy washing patients just have tears in their eyes right after the procedure when I show them the mirror.

Maggie McKay: How rewarding. I'll take the 20 years off. I, I have no problem with that.

so how is it possible to achieve such impressive results in just one hour?

Eric Seiger, MD: Well, if you go to the hospital, you're in the waiting room for, you know, an hour before you go in. Then you get ready for anesthesia, and the anesthesia takes a good 40 minutes for them to put you to sleep, and then cutting the muscles and moving the muscles. There's a lot of blood vessels and they put drains in and there's swelling and a two week recovery because of the drains.

By me just cutting and tightening and then cutting the skin and sewing, we can easily do that in about an hour and a half. It's amazing. Hopefully patients get to see before and after pictures on this podcast.

Maggie McKay: Yeah, exactly. I hope so. so one of the standout features, you kind of touched on it already a little bit, but of the hour lift mini facelift is its affordability compared to other facelift options. Could you explain why the hour lift is more cost effective and how it benefits patients who may be seeking a facelift but they have budgetary restraints.

Eric Seiger, MD: so when I developed this in my mind, the reason I went into doing cosmetic surgery is cuz I used to see derm patients, skin diseases, and I would see like 80 patients in a day. I started doing a lot of personal growth on myself and I got to a place that. empathy, compassion, making a difference became really important to me.

 And so I decided to do something, do this cosmetic surgery where I could actually spend a lot more time with patients and make a difference for them. And then when I started thinking about it, I decided I wanna make a difference for people that usually couldn't even afford to get this done. So, the price of our lift starts at 3,900, but the average price is 6,500. it depends on whether you do neck lipo with it, how much filler we do with it, whether we do your eyes up or lower eyelids with it. compared to most plastic surgeons, a facelift is generally starts at about.

10 to 15,000 and can go as high as $120,000. I created this in mind to do it on people that would never even have thought that it was possible for them, cuz that's who I wanted to connect with.

So the cost is affordable because number one, there's no anesthesia cost, there's no hospital cost, there's no drain cost. It's just me. working on a patient for an hour and a half, so I decided I wanted to reduce the amount that I was gonna charge, and so people fly in from all over the country to have this done with me, because they love the connection and the affordability that they have with me.

Maggie McKay: And what is recovery like time wise?

Eric Seiger, MD: Most people in three days. Look good enough to go out to a restaurant. 80% of the people get no bruising. But you may bruise and you may swell, and if you do, it's about a week long. You get your stitches out in one week.

Maggie McKay: And with traditional how long?

Eric Seiger, MD: usually a good two weeks there people are swollen with drains.

Maggie McKay: Yikes.

The drain part is like, ah.

Eric Seiger, MD: I would put my

results right up against any

plastic surgeon's face lift.

Maggie McKay: I believe it. so you have what, 6,000 hour lift mini facelifts performed and you

have

Eric Seiger, MD: over 6,000 I've performed.

Maggie McKay: Wow. And so you have extensive experience obviously in this field. Can you share some success stories or testimonials from your patients who

have

undergone the procedure?

Eric Seiger, MD: Well, I have hundreds of pictures that I can share with you, and I'm sure if we go to the reviews, If you either go to, uh, real self reviews or, Google reviews or my office's reviews, you'll see review after review testimonial after testimonial.

Maggie McKay: So besides, the cost, what are some of the other common

reasons patients choose the hour

lift over other facelift options?

Eric Seiger, MD: Well, the things that I

hear are, I look in the mirror and I'm starting to look like my mother. I hear that all the time. I look in the mirror and, I'm seeing this Google or waddle or whatever, Turkey neck, and it reminds me of my mother, my grandmother, and I don't want that. I look in the mirror and I don't, I feel young inside and when I look, it doesn't reflect me.

I get that all the time. Yeah, I just, and then there's a lot of people, I'm getting younger and younger people. It used to be, my average patient used to be around 58, 62. Now it's like 52. So I have patients coming in that just want to keep their looks, you know, they're using Zoom, they're, they're using social media and they look and see themselves and they're like, I'm starting to get these little jowls.

my cheeks are starting to drop. I'm starting to get this here, and they come in early and I just, you know, go like this to them. Show them that. They're like, yes, that's exactly what I want. And they book and we take good care

of

them.

Maggie McKay: So does it take care of

under eyes or is that just a whole nother procedure?

Eric Seiger, MD: I do lower bluffs, I do upper bluffs. That's eyelid surgeries. But mostly if I do filler on midface, which is like a jelly that we're putting air into a tire, which lasts a year to a year and a half, that takes care of under eye, areas. And I, I get filler in my face

every

Maggie McKay: Really. Okay. I'm gonna have to make an appointment with you. we did talk a little bit about, the downtime and how it's quicker, but are there any specific

post-procedure care instructions

that patients need to know about topalo?

Eric Seiger, MD: we put ice on for 24 hours. They have a head garment that Velcros on that just stays on for 24 hours, and then after that, they take a shower the next day. They usually take pain pills for two to three days. it's a, a little uncomfortable for the first couple days. Usually sleep the first day after they leave here cuz they've had their Demerol in Valium.

And then I see them back a week later, and take the stitches out. And generally they're looking really good. Sometimes they're bruised, but most times

not.

Maggie McKay: And are the stitches sort of on the

side where you can't really see 'em by your

Eric Seiger, MD: So my incision, my incision, is in

the

hairline up

here. Comes down, it gets hidden in the ear here. And then if we just doing the face, we stop there. But if we're including the neck, I come around and it goes up into this area

here.

Maggie McKay: Wow. That is amazing.

Eric Seiger, MD: And then sometimes

we add, if they have big necks, we do a little liposuction on the neck to give them a nice straight jawline and then give them their neck back.

We have a lot of patients that come in

for

Maggie McKay: Oh, okay. Well I didn't know that they did the neck you liposuction. You know, you always hear like the hips to the et cetera.

 Learning a lot today, Dr. Seeger. looking ahead to the next 10 years. How do you envision the future of non-surgical face rejuvenation

procedures, like the hour lift?

Are there any

potential advancements?

Eric Seiger, MD: Yeah, I just got a

new machine in two weeks ago that's pretty amazing that they developed at Harvard. And it's, called Elior. And what it does is it, It does surgery without scarring by making tiny little holes in the face. It's not laser. It makes little holes and sucks pieces of skin out that are tiny and when you do it, it takes 5% of your skin out in each time you have it done.

It's like thousands of little tiny. Plugs that get pulled out and then when you heal, 5% of your skin is gone and everything closes down and tightens, and that's without scarring. So I just got that machine. I've done like 10 cases and it's really promising and we'll see how that goes. So a combination of those two things, especially the skin around the mouth that gets all wrinkled in the ear.

We take, you know, 5% out at a time, do three sessions and that should do really well to tighten the skin around the mouth.

Maggie McKay: Is that going to reduce

recovery

time even more you think?

Eric Seiger, MD: that's usually like a week to two week recovery because you're doing little incisions where it's seen on your face, but within two weeks it should be healed

and uh, no one should

notice.

Maggie McKay: so that's the latest. Is there anything else kind of,

uh,

in the air that they're working on?

Eric Seiger, MD: that's the newest thing. There's lots of lasers out there. A lot of them don't do what they say they're gonna do, and a lot of people spend a lot of money and don't get the results they're looking for. I've bought a lot of machines over the years they're just sitting in my

closet

now.

Maggie McKay: Ugh, doesn't that kill you?

Eric Seiger, MD: people should be careful and really do their research.

Maggie McKay: How would you find out like which kind of laser surgery or procedure I guess would be best for you?

Eric Seiger, MD: problem is, is if if someone just has one laser, they may try to promote that laser cuz that's what they have. So I guess I would say go to someone that has a lot of different options so that you can get to pick the option that's right for you.

Maggie McKay: That's a good idea. So in closing, Dr. Seger, is there anything else you'd like people who are considering the hour lift to know? 

Eric Seiger, MD: no one needs cosmetic surgery, But if you look in the mirror and you're bothered and you go like this and you go, Ooh, that's what I want, then that's what our mini lift will do for you. You come in and, and speak with me. It's, consultation is no charge. You can come in as many times as you want.

we'll look in the mirror together. We'll see what's right for you together. We'll put a plan together and, someone brings you the day of surgery and an hour and a half later you're turn back the clock by 10 years. And again, that'll last for five to 10 years.

I have a lot of happy patients that come back and actually have a three, and I've actually had, patients come back and have a fourth session because I've been doing this for 25 years.

Maggie McKay: Yeah. So,

uh, if someone would like to

find out more or make an appointment with you, where would they go?

Eric Seiger, MD: Well, I have offices in Michigan. I have three offices in Michigan. I also just opened an office in La Jolla, California by San Diego. Um, they're one week a month. And you can just go to skin and vain.com and take a look on the website and find out where we are and come see me. You can give us a call.

We'll even do a, a consultation over the phone or on a video chat.

Maggie McKay: That's great. Thank you so much for sharing this information and telling us about this exciting option. It sounds perfect.

Eric Seiger, MD: It's been my pleasure.

Maggie McKay: Again, that's Dr. Eric Seger, and if you found this podcast helpful, please share it on your social channels and check out our entire podcast library. For topics of interest to you, this is Top Doc's Podcast. I'm Maggie McKay. Thanks for listening.