Request more information about cosmetic surgery home . A well known complication of a facelift is damage to the nerves of the face. The most common type of injury is to the sensory or feeling nerves. This leads to numbness. It is common in the ear and cheek skin in the first few weeks after surgery.
More permanent numbness is usually due to damage to the greater auricular nerve.
More noticeable is damage to the facial nerve which supplies movement to the face. Because swelling and bruising may cause identical symptoms in the first few weeks after surgery, weakness of the face is not always a sign of permanent nerve damage. It is for this reason that surgery to repair the nerve is not indicated in the first few months after a facelift. Even in this situation most problems resolve without surgery.