Inside a Pearland Facelift, From Consultation Room to Recovery Room

A facelift patient in Pearland can meet the surgeon, sign off on a plan, have the operation and wake up in recovery without leaving the building at 2360 County Road 94. The practice of Leo Lapuerta, MD, FACS, runs an accredited outpatient surgical facility on site, and the Pearland office is where much of that sequence plays out.

Dr. Lapuerta established the facility, The Plastic Surgery Institute of Southeast Texas, in 2003. For readers comparing options, the practice’s Pearland facelift overview covers the procedure itself. The stages below follow a patient from first visit to follow-up, using the practice’s own descriptions.

Stage one: the private consultation

The practice describes a Pearland consultation and exam room where patients meet one on one with Dr. Lapuerta. Patients can review before-and-after photographs there; the practice has more than 3,000 of them for patients to study.

The facelift conversation covers facial structure, skin elasticity, skin quality and the pattern of aging across the cheeks, jawline and neck. Medical history matters, as do worries about scars, anesthesia and recovery. From that picture, Dr. Lapuerta recommends a version of the operation: a mini facelift for early changes, a traditional or SMAS facelift, or a deep plane or extended deep plane approach when deeper tissues need repositioning. Patients with neck laxity often need a neck lift at the same time.

Spouses and partners often come along to these visits. Dr. Lapuerta reports that a partner who did not see the need for surgery at first will often return after recovery to describe the energy and vitality the patient has regained, and sometimes says they would have offered support sooner had they known.

Stage two: the day of surgery

The practice breaks the operation into six parts:

1. Marking and planning, with incision design and lift direction mapped on the face and neck before surgery begins.
2. Anesthesia, often general anesthesia, after a review of medical history. Dr. Lapuerta works only with physician anesthesiologists, never nurse anesthetists or anesthesia assistants.
3. Incisions placed around the ears and hairline, positioned to keep scarring minimal.
4. Repositioning of the deeper tissues and support layers, with the depth set by the chosen method.
5. Removal of excess skin so the outer layer drapes over the restored support without hard pulling.
6. Closure, and the start of healing.

The practice lists an average facelift procedure time of four to six hours. A neck lift or another procedure added to the plan changes that figure.

Stage three: the recovery room

In Pearland, the practice describes a recovery room located just outside the surgery doors, where patients rest in privacy before going home. Staff then walk patients through post-op and follow-up instructions before they leave.

The facility holds QuadA (AAAASF) accreditation, and Dr. Lapuerta owns and operates it. He also holds hospital privileges in the Memorial Hermann network, at HCA hospitals including The Woman’s Hospital of Texas and at St. Luke’s Houston Medical Center, and the practice lists facelift recovery as either inpatient or outpatient.

Stage four: the weeks that follow

The practice lists a first post-op follow-up one day after surgery and a recovery time of two to three weeks. Swelling and bruising peak in the first few days. Over the early weeks the skin settles and the incisions improve, and the final result keeps refining as residual swelling fades.

Patients keep the head elevated, limit lifting and strenuous exercise and protect healing skin from sun. Discomfort tends to respond to prescribed pain medication, and tightness or numbness are more common than severe pain. Scars start pink or firm and soften over time; the practice notes that sun exposure can worsen their appearance.

A facelift carries the risks of any surgery, and results depend on skin quality, healing and the aging that continues afterward. Dr. Lapuerta, who is triple board certified and has more than 30 years in practice, has been named Living Magazine Best Plastic Surgeon and Best Place for Botox in multiple years, in the Houston and Pearland/Friendswood editions. For a Pearland patient, the more practical detail may be the shorter list of addresses: consultation, surgery and recovery in one place.

This article is for general information only and is not medical advice. Results vary from patient to patient. Consult a board-certified plastic surgeon or your physician about your own situation. Written in partnership with Joseph Lambert, a publicist working with Leo Lapuerta, MD Plastic Surgery.