Topical Antibiotics after Facelift

Are you clients secretly using topical antibiotics or aquaphor to help heal their facelift wounds? 

Many clients remember their parent's using mercurochrome, triple antibiotic ointment or hydrogen peroxide on their wounds as a child, and old habits die hard. It is ESSENTIAL that they follow their own surgeon's postoperative wound care protocol.

Clients may be suspicious that they are only being told to use petroleum jelly on their wounds. Researchers found that plain old petroleum jelly is as effective as bacitracin for preventing surgial site infections. Petroleum jelly is actually superior because of the decreased risk of contact dermatitis and antibiotic resistance. Aquaphor causes more redness than petroleum jelly. Silver based-agents may actually impair healing in clean incisions.

Have clients ask their surgeon whether in this case, simplest is best, and petroleum jelly is actually the best choice for healing their wounds. 

Rouhani, D. S., Zeng, S., Khoo, K. H., Ma, M., Bishop, S. N., Janis, J. E., & Mofid, M. M. (2025). Six Evidence-based Recommendations for Perioperative Incisional Care in Plastic Surgery: A Narrative Review. Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery–Global Open, 13(10), e7228. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC12558301/