Is a $40,000 Deep Plane Facelift Actually Worth It?

Mirror Mirror with Amy Chang

Catt Sadler shares her detailed experience undergoing a deep plane facelift, neck lift, and upper blepharoplasty with Dr. Steve Kim. She dis

Key takeaways

• Catt Sadler underwent a deep plane facelift, neck lift, and upper blepharoplasty at age 48.
• The full recovery and settling of surgical results took approximately 14 months.

Main topics

• Deep plane facelift recovery
• Cosmetic surgery costs

Notable quotes

It was a gift to myself in many, many ways.

Conclusion

The episode provides a transparent and practical guide for those consi

Transcript preview

Speaker 1 (0:00) This is bugging me. I feel like I have, I'm jowly and I'm a little saggy and I look tired. What are my options? And he just shot it to me straight. And he was like, well, you would need a facelift to fix that. And I was like, is it too early? At this point I was 48. And he was like, Speaker 2 (0:14) no. I'm curious, what led you to the point where you said, hey, this is something I wanna take seriously and possibly do? Speaker 1 (0:23) I think there were a lot of factors that you know, got me to my decision. But I will say I was 47, 48, and I was really experiencing all of the signs of perimenopause. So being a journalist, being a former TV host, I am curious about all the things and I started talking about all the things and so I created this online series called midlife and me and we were talking about hot flashes we were talking about you know brain fog you're really out of the curve I Speaker 2 (0:54) mean maybe I mean Speaker 1 (0:56) it's crazy because even like now like Oprah has a menopause thing like Naomi Speaker 2 (0:59) Watts has her menopause line and Halle Berry's coming out and talking about it now yes Speaker 1 (1:04) I think it was just a little bit before These amazing celebrities have these great brands. Maybe I should have been thinking about that. Products at the time, but I wasn't. I was just, I was connecting with women. The more I spoke about how I was feeling, the more responses I got. Like, please keep talking about this. But I couldn't explore. about aging and what's happening to the body and being hijacked and feeling like an alien and all these things that are going on hormonally without talking about the vanity piece, because that's such a real part of it. You know, you're looking in the mirror and you don't look like you used to. And so I was doing this series and I thought, you know what, I'm going to go see Dr. Kim, who had been my doctor giving me Botox since I was 35. Is this Dr. Charles Kim? This is Steve Kim. Okay. So Dr. Steve Kim is in Beverly Hills, and I'd been seeing him for more than a decade, but just for injectables. Really, that was it. I thought, you know, I should just go to him. Would he get on camera for this series I was doing to talk about... my options because I was looking in the mirror. I looked a little sad in photos. I looked like I was tired all the time and it was just bugging me. What Speaker 2 (2:13) were you doing at that time? So you said Botox, hyaluronic acid filler. Speaker 1 (2:17) I've gotten very little filler over the years, mostly just injectables and mostly microneedling. I've always come back to microneedling. And I will say I've taken fairly good care of my skin all these years being on camera. Like obviously, like my face was in front of the world for so many years. And listen, I knew enough having been in LA to know that like a facelift was an option. And I'd hear people say things like, you know, don't wait too long. Don't wait till you're, you know, in your late 50s to do it. So I knew that day when I was going to see Dr. Kim, I was like. You know, I knew that was a possibility. It was somewhere in the back of my head. But when I asked him, I'm like, this is bugging me. I feel like I have, I'm jowly and I'm a little saggy and I look tired. What are my options? And he just shot it to me straight. And he was like, well, you would need a facelift to fix that. And I was like, is it too early? At this point, I was 48. And he's like, no, it's not too early. And in fact, because you are younger. you know, than some who wait to their late 50s or 60s to do this, your body is going to really work for you. It's almost to your advantage to be at this kind of sweet spot of an age. With the healing Speaker 2 (3:28) process. For Speaker 1 (3:29) the healing process, cellularly, my body's going to respond better. And there's not such a... a drastic response to how I would look, right? If I'd gotten 10 more years down the line, deeper wrinkles, more, you know, less volume in my face, it was going to be more obvious, right? So it was crazy. He told me that day, like that was an option. And then, you know, part of me got really excited and part of me got kind of like, wow, I didn't expect you to say that, a facelift. And then I think I was on the operating table a month later. Speaker 2 (4:00) That was a fast progression. I mean, but I guess part of it is you had that built-in trust with Dr. Kim. You had been seeing him for years. Did you ever at any point consider kind of shopping around, getting other opinions? Speaker 1 (4:12) I really didn't. You know, I had heard the names of like the good doctors in LA, but... I just trust him implicitly. And I was so comfortable with him. And I did have other friends who have seen him and had surgery with him. So I knew that he was a skilled surgeon. I had friends who had gone to him. I knew that he had patients from all over the world fly in to experience his gifts. And I was like, Let's go. It was kind of wild. Once I decided, there was no turning back. Speaker 2 (4:44) I feel like referral is the best way because then you get to see a living, breathing example of the work. And you hear firsthand that testimonial. Like when I go to clinics in Korea, like it has to be through a referral. Whenever I try somewhere new, even here, I'm like, I need a referral. I need to see the work on someone, not just a before and after photo. Because I mean, these days, I feel like there's... most places are not, but you've heard of it online, Speaker 1 (5:12) doctoring photos. Once I did go public with this, I mean, I hear from women all over the world, all ages, like every day I get a DM like, who did your facelift? And what would you, you know, a lot of questions about it. So, but I always say that number one thing is like, get a referral. Like a lot of people don't know and they're not really in this world and they don't have a clue. And I'm always like, try to really, really do your research. It's the most important piece I think is really feeling super secure in who your surgeon is. And yeah, referral beats anything. Speaker 2 (5:44) My aunt got a facelift in the nineties. They were in LA. I grew up in Minnesota, but I remember coming out here and I remember when that happened and like our whole family, it was like a secret and we weren't supposed to talk about it. And it's just amazing to see that progression of how it's changed. But so tell me, what type of facelift did you get? Because for the listeners out there, generally there's... like five different types. There's the skin only, which is pretty outdated. No one does this anymore. I don't know if you remember this, but like back in, way back in the day, like you would see those women where it just looked super, like windblown, like the wind had struck them. They'd gone through the wind tunnel. And part of that was because at the time they were just addressing the skin and pulling it back in the lateral direction. And now we know that that leads to that. That leads to visible scars because of the tension and the pull on the skin. And it just gives that a natural look. So there's that one. There's the mini lift, the SMAS, the deep plane facelift, and then I guess the deep extended. plain facelift where it's just the deep plane, but then they're also doing the full neck. Speaker 1 (6:54) Well, then maybe that's me because I had a deep plane facelift. So it is the skin and the muscle really like I describe it as he's taking my face off and putting it back on. Everything gets Speaker 2 (7:06) repositioned at the same time. Yes. Speaker 1 (7:08) Crazy. And then I did get a neck lift as well. Speaker 2 (7:11) Okay. That's probably why you look so natural because they say that if people just do the midface and the lower part and don't do the neck, that there's this disconnect between the