Trying to decide between having a face lift and just using an over-the-counter face lift cream? Take a look at these glaring differences before you decide.

A face lift cream is an affordable alternative to having an actual face lift. It’s more discreet than surgery and it produces a gradual change over time, rather than a dramatic and sometimes traumatic abrupt change. It is also a non-invasive method of firming up the skin, meaning no needles poking through the skin, no scalpels slicing into it. Likewise, it’s a painless approach to facial wrinkles and other visible signs of aging on the face. There’s no arduous recovery period to have to endure, no time taken out from life to have it done.

Surgeries of any sort involve some element of risk. There’s no way around that, only ways to reduce the chances of problems occurring or, when problems do occur, ways of minimizing the damage. But with face lift creams there’s no such risk. The worst that might happen is a slight allergic reaction to one of the ingredients, and if that happens you simply switch to a different brand or type of face lift cream without that ingredient and the allergic reaction goes away. When problems occur with actual face lift surgeries, you can only hope to be so lucky.

One area in which face lifts do actually have an advantage over face lift creams is that there is a medical professional involved in the process. A doctor performs a face lift surgery while an individual applies face lift creams to oneself at home. Furthermore, these creams are not FDA-approved or regulated. To compensate for this disparity, it is simply recommended that you include your dermatologist in the decision to start using any face lift cream and continue to have your dermatologist monitor your progress as long as continue to use it.