Cosmetic surgery on the face typically involves separation, repositioning and tightening of the outer skin layer. In order to increase longevity of the smoothed face it has become more common to tighten the underlying SMAS (Superficial Musculoaponeurotic System) layer in addition to the outer skin. Previous measurements and analysis of these two tissues indicates that the SMAS behaves more elastically and exhibits less viscoplastic relaxation than the facial skin. Most mechanical analyses of cosmetic surgery treat the facial tissue as elastic. Recently, a set of elastic-viscoplastic constitutive equations have been developed to model the responses of these two facial tissues. The main objective of this study is to use these constitutive equations to study the time-dependent evolution of the aging face. Specifically, material constants in the constitutive model are adjusted to predict reasonable relaxation response of the facial tissue to the long term pull of gravity. Ultimately, it is anticipated that such constitutive equations can be used to help physicians select the best surgical procedure for each patient which optimizes the longevity of the face lift operation.
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