What is a Brow Lift?
Brow lift surgery elevates your brow area, correcting drooping eyebrows and smoothing forehead wrinkles to restore your face’s neutral expression. Besides potentially betraying your age, a sagging brow can make you look sad, tired, or even angry. If it hangs low enough, it can also interfere with your peripheral vision. Brow lifts work well for both patients with early signs of aging and those whose brow aging is more advanced.
We want you to understand what a brow lift is, but also what it isn’t. Perhaps because the two surgeries are often performed together, we encounter a lot of confusion about the difference between a brow lift and an eyelid lift (blepharoplasty). An eyelid lift literally focuses on the eyelids while a brow lift impacts the eyebrows and forehead. You may benefit from both procedures, but you can absolutely have one without the other.
About The Brow Lift Procedure
- Temporal: A minimal approach, the temporal brow lift involves incisions at either side of the forehead and focuses on lifting just the outer third of the eyebrows.
- Endoscopic: During an endoscopic brow lift, the surgeon makes small, 1-inch incisions at the hairline. They then use a small camera to visualize the area and manipulate surgical instruments within the space, lifting the eyebrows and suturing the tissue in place. This approach is subtle and best for patients with minor forehead aging.
- Direct or Mid-Forehead: The incisions for these techniques are made just above your eyebrows (direct) or within the natural furrows of your forehead (mid-forehead). This approach is rare but helpful when patients have severe signs of aging. It works well for correcting deep forehead creases and benefits balding men for whom we can’t hide the incisions in the hairline.
- Coronal: Also known as an open brow lift, a coronal lift involves placing a single incision along the hairline from ear to ear. This approach is most often used for women with small foreheads, as this technique can lift the hairline.
Brow Lift Recovery
After brow lift surgery, expect your forehead to be swollen and bruised. Getting plenty of rest is important, so you’ll need to take off work for a few days. If you have a desk job, you’ll likely be back at work within 10 to 14 days. More rigorous jobs may require more downtime, however, and you could be home for two to three weeks. Recovery may progress a bit more quickly after an endoscopic procedure, however.
While recovering, rest often and keep your head elevated as much as you can. You will need to resume your normal activities gradually, postponing strenuous activities until several weeks after surgery.
Your surgeon will give you detailed instructions on how to care for your incisions. If necessary, we’ll schedule an appointment for you to have your stitches removed. Dissolving sutures are common, though, and eliminate the need for removal.
How Long Does a Brow Lift Last?
Some patients find that their brow lift lasts them a lifetime. Others do start to notice some sagging again as time and gravity march on. Even these patients usually enjoy the results of their lift for at least 10 to 12 years, however, and find the procedure well worth the investment.
Frequently Asked Questions
Sometimes, yes. If the hooded or drooping appearance is truly caused by the brow, then lifting it will help. But if your eyelids themselves truly are drooping or sagging, they will need to be surgically repaired themselves. If necessary, we can combine your brow lift with an eyelid lift (blepharoplasty) procedure and fix both issues in one surgery.
It’s easy to confuse these two procedures as they’re frequently talked about together. A brow lift elevates the skin and muscles of the forehead to raise the eyebrows and smooth wrinkles. Eyelid surgery, as its name suggests, focuses solely on the eyelids themselves. During that procedure, excess skin and fat are removed from the lids.
When performed correctly by a skilled plastic surgeon like those at Mia Aesthetics, a brow lift will look natural. A look of constant surprise is typically caused by a brow lift that is too tight. Our goal is always to give you a fresh but natural look that doesn’t scream “I’ve had work done” to those around you.
Yes, if your forehead wrinkles are deep. Sometimes, however, younger patients or those with only mild sagging can improve the appearance of their brow with Botox. Remember that Botox is temporary and needs touchups every three to four months, while a brow lift easily lasts 10 years or longer.
Absolutely, and it often is. A brow lift can be combined with any procedure so long as your plastic surgeon deems it safe to do so. Brow lifts are often performed in conjunction with eyelid, neck, and face lifts. Dermal fillers in the cheeks and under-eye area are also commonly done along with brow lifts.
We always encourage patients to try nonsurgical options first if they wish, so long as the treatment they’re considering is safe. But you will likely require surgical intervention if nonsurgical treatments have failed, you have very deep forehead wrinkles, or if your brow droops significantly. You will also need surgery if your brow droops far enough to impede your vision.
Not very! You will, of course, have scars after your surgery, but plastic surgeons specialize in hiding and disguising scars. We understand you don’t want a noticeable scar, especially on your face. Our surgeons camouflage scars by placing them in the hairline, just above your eyebrows, or in a natural forehead crease. Your scars will be pink and possibly raised a bit initially, but they will fade and flatten as you heal.
Patients often consider a brow lift somewhere between the ages of 40 and 60, but there is no right or wrong age. If your brow sags enough to impair your vision or if it bothers you, you can have a brow lift no matter your age, so long as you’re healthy enough to undergo surgery.