New Jersey Brow Lift – Surgery Procedure and Recovery

Overview

Click to understand your plastic surgery options with our animated procedure guide

If people tell you that you look angry or sad, an aging forehead with drooping eyebrows and wrinkled forehead skin may be to blame. As we age, our skin loses its elasticity and tone. Gravity wins out, causing our forehead skin and eyebrows to sag. In addition, a lifetime of facial animation and corrugator muscle activity causes a progressive deepening of the wrinkle lines in our forehead skin. The corrugator muscles are located beneath the inner aspect of the eyebrows. They cause us to frown, eventually developing vertical wrinkle lines between the eyebrows, and are a major contributor to horizontal wrinkles in the forehead as well.

Non-invasive treatments such as neurotoxins, fillers, and skin resurfacing can provide temporary forehead rejuvenation.

More permanently, a surgical forehead or brow lift is a good solution to rejuvenate these aging changes in your forehead. A brow lift accomplishes several goals:

Raises the eyebrows to a more normal position
Smoothes the transverse wrinkles across the forehead and between the eyebrows
Restores a more well rested and youthful appearance

According to the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery, there were 24,431 forehead lifts in 2012 on both men and women across the country.

How do I Determine What’s Best for Me in Treating my Aging Forehead and Eyebrows?

A number of options currently exist to treat the signs of aging in the forehead and eyebrows. During your initial consultation, Dr. Parker will listen to what bothers you, take a medical history, and perform a physical examination of your forehead and face focusing on the areas around your eyes. He will assess your eyebrow position, upper eyelid skin excess, the wrinkles in your forehead and those between your eyebrows, and the quality of your forehead skin. Dr. Parker will review his findings with you and discuss the various treatment options available.

Are there Non-surgical Treatment Options for my Forehead Wrinkles and Sagging Eyebrows?

In considering treatment options, we first think of non-surgical options. Though temporary, neurotoxins such as BOTOX and Dysport can be used to elevate the outer aspect of the eyebrows and soften or eliminate wrinkling between the eyebrows and in the forehead. We often refer to this as a “chemical brow lift.”

Fillers can be used to plump out very deep depressions in between the eyebrows if they do not completely disappear after neurotoxin injections. Fillers can also be used in conjunction with neurotoxin injections to raise the outer aspect of the eyebrows.

Discoloration and fine wrinkling of the forehead skin may be improved with skin care products, a chemical peel, or laser resurfacing. Dr. Parker and his team will discuss the details of these treatments with you, as well as their duration, at your initial consultation.

What surgical options are available to treat my forehead wrinkles and sagging eyebrows?

During your initial consultation, Dr. Parker will likely review surgical options for forehead and brow rejuvenation. These typically include brow lift techniques and often, options for upper eyelid blepharoplasty. If more comprehensive facial rejuvenation is desired, other procedures can be performed at the same time such as lower eyelid blepharoplasty and facelift surgery.

Are there Different Types of Brow Lifts?

For many years, a coronal brow lift, requiring an ear-to-ear incision behind the hairline, was considered the standard procedure for brow rejuvenation. Dr. Parker and many other respected plastic surgeons have found the less invasive endoscopic brow lift to be as effective as a coronal brow lift, but with much smaller incisions. In selected patients, the combination of a temporal brow lift with transpalpebral corrugator resection is quite satisfactory, as well. In patients desiring or requiring less of a brow lift, a lateral brow lift or brow pexy is also effective. These procedures are considered “minimally invasive,” resulting in shorter scars and quicker, easier recoveries than coronal brow lifts.

What is Involved with an Endoscopic Brow Lift?

During an endoscopic brow lift, Dr. Parker will make three small incisions, each about ¾” in length, just behind your anterior hairline. This will allow him to insert a thin telescopic probe, called an endoscope, connected to a camera and television monitor. Guided by the endoscope, he will surgically separate your forehead skin from the underlying tissues. This will allow Dr. Parker to remove a significant portion of the corrugator muscles using the endoscope for optimal visualization. He will elevate your eyebrows into a more youthful position and hold them in place with sutures. The small incisions will then be closed with sutures.

This 41 year old patient underwent an endoscopic brow lift and an upper eyelid blepharoplasty. She also had correction of her drooping left upper eyelid, or ptosis correction, by Dr. Parker.

What is a Temporal Brow Lift with Transpalpebral Corrugator Resection?

In those patients undergoing an upper lid blepharoplasty who have little sagging of the inner aspect of their eyebrows and only mild laxity of skin in between the eyebrows, a temporal brow lift is a very good choice. A 1½-inch incision is made in the temporal part of your scalp behind the hairline. Dr. Parker will separate the temporal and forehead skin from the underlying tissues. He will elevate the outer aspect of your eyebrows into a more youthful position and stabilize them in place with sutures. The temporal scalp incisions will then be closed with sutures. Dr. Parker will then perform what is known as a transpalpebral corrugator resection, removing the corrugator muscles under direct vision through the upper eyelid incision (medically, this is referred to as “transpalpebral”). Removing the corrugator muscles offers long-term option for softening of frown lines and forehead wrinkles.

This 50 year old patient underwent transpalpebral resection of her corrugator muscles through her upper lid blepharoplasty incision. At the same time, she had a temporal brow lift performed along with a lower lid blepharoplasty and facelift.

What is Involved with a Lateral Brow Lift?

A lateral brow lift, otherwise known as a lateral brow pexy, can be performed during an upper lid blepharoplasty through the upper lid blepharoplasty incision. Using this approach, Dr. Parker will moderately elevate the outer aspect of your eyebrows by suspending them internally with sutures. This requires approximately 30 minutes performing in addition to your upper lid blepharoplasty procedure. It adds very little to your recovery afterwards. Lateral brow pexy should provide mild elevation of the outer aspect of your eyebrows, as shown by the patient below.

This 54 year old patient, at the time of her upper lid blepharoplasty, also underwent a lateral brow lift, or browpexy, to slightly elevate the outer aspect of her eyebrows.

What is Recovery Like with Brow Lift Procedures?

The brow lift procedures discussed above usually require approximately one hour to perform in our fully certified, on site ambulatory surgical facility, Surgiplex. Patients are made comfortable with monitored intravenous sedation or general anesthesia, administered by one of our board certified anesthesiologists. Patients are typically discharged one hour after completing surgery. There is usually very little postoperative pain. Patients may shower and shampoo their hair the day after surgery. Sutures are removed within ten days. Swelling and discoloration subside within 10 to 14 days. Camouflage make-up may be applied after one week. Patients may return to normal activities in seven to ten days and exercise in two weeks.

“I have strongly recommended Dr. Parker and the Spa to everyone who knows about my procedures. Everyone is attentive, informed and committed to patient’s recovery and comfort.” —Facial Plastic Surgery Patient