My mother-in-law had a facelift a little over a month ago. She’s very disappointed because she’s really not seeing much improvement. Her doctor keeps telling her that it will improve as she heals. Is this really possible?

Since your mother had a facelift one month ago, she may have some residual swelling that needs to resolve.  As well, she is still healing.  Give it time.  If, after a few months, she still sees no improvement, she has a few options available.  One is non-invasive skin tightening procedures, such as Exilis.  Exilis uses radiofrequency to tighten skin.  There is no downtime associated with this process.  If your mother has redundancy in neck muscle bands, she may benefit from Botox injection into these bands.  If your mother’s main concerns are the central neck, a submentoplasty might be of benefit.  A submentoplasty is performed through a small incision beneath the chin; through this incision, I perform neck liposuction, tightening of the neck muscle, and trimming of some excess skin.  If your mother is interested in a more definitive treatment, a tuck up facelift (re-doing the facelift) may be in order.