Browlifts can revitalize drooping or lined foreheads, helping you to look less angry, sad or tired. Using minimally invasive (endoscopic) methods, browlifts involve the removal or alteration of the muscles above the eyes to smooth lines and raise the eyebrows for a more youthful appearance. The procedure is often combined with other operations such as blepharoplasty and facelifts to improve the look of the eyes and other areas of the face.
While browlifts are typically performed on patients aged 40-60 to counteract the effects of aging, anyone with lined or inelastic skin on the forehead is eligible. The procedure is usually performed under local anesthesia and sedation.
If you aren’t sure whether you want a browlift, try standing in front of a mirror and placing the palms of your hands to the sides of your eyes above the eyebrows. Then pull the skin back from the eyes, raising the forehead. This is approximately how the procedure will make you look.
Note: Patients with very short hair may want to let it grow before surgery to better camouflage the healing scar.
The Procedure
In an endoscopic browlift, tThe patient's hair is tied back and Dr. Funt makes three to five short incisions (less than an inch long) behind the hairline. The endoscope is placed in one so he can see beneath the skin without having to make a large incision, while he lifts the skin and adjusts tissues through the other incisions. If the eyebrows are lifted, they will be stitched or screwed (temporarily) into place. The site is washed and the rubber bands are removed. Dr. Funt may protect the stitches with gauze or bandages.
Dr. Funt uses the ENDOTINE Forehead device instead of non-absorbable sutures in browlifts. It lifts the brow tissues using several points of contact instead of only one like sutures or screws. Once implanted, the device holds the lifted tissues in place as they complete the process of reattaching to the scalp. The device is then absorbed into the body until it is completely dissolved. Other advantages of the ENDOTINE device are that it can be adjusted, it eliminates the need for metal screws in the scalp, does not cause hair loss by pinching hair follicles, does not need to be removed.
Recovery
Endoscopic surgery patients may experience some numbness, discomfort and swelling around the incisions, though there is less itching than with traditional surgery. Patients will be on their feet and able to wash their hair in a day or two, and many patients return to work or school in 7-10 days or less. Swelling and bruising should fade by the third week. Sleeping with the head elevated and using cold compresses will reduce swelling and discomfort over the first few days. Some patients can feel the ENDOTINE device under the skin and the area may be sensitive, but this feeling will fade as the device is absorbed into the body.
Risks
Complications are rare and usually minor but may include temporary numbness, nerve injury, hair loss along scar edges, formation of a broad scar requiring surgical correction, and infection and bleeding.
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In time, gravity, sun exposure, and the stresses of daily life take their toll on our faces: deep creases appear beside the mouth, the jawline slackens, and folds and fat deposits appear on the neck. Facelifts counteract these problems by removing fat and tightening skin and muscles, giving your face a fresher, youthful look -- after surgery, some patients appear as much as ten or 15 years younger.
Facelifts are most often performed on people in their 40s-60s, those in their 70s or 80s can have facelifts as well. The procedure can be combined with others (browlift, eyelid surgery, nose reshaping) for more dramatic results, or it can be restricted to the neck (necklift) if the patient’s problems center there.
Patients who smoke, take medications or have certain medical conditions such as high blood pressure, blood clotting problems or the tendency to form excessive scars should discuss potential risks with their surgeons. Patients with short hair may want to consider letting it grow before surgery to better conceal scars.
Facelifts are usually outpatient procedures and may be performed in an office-based facility, surgery center or hospital, typically under local anesthesia combined with a sedative. The procedure itself varies depending on the surgeon and the patient’s facial structure (i.e. where the incisions are placed, whether one or both sides of the face are worked on at once, in which order the steps are performed).
In most facelifts, incisions are made from the temples down in front of the ears and back behind the earlobe to the lower scalp. The surgeon lifts the skin, suctions fat, tightens muscle, trims excess skin and then stitches the incisions closed. Sometimes metal clips are also used to hold incisions firmly closed on the scalp, and bandages are often wrapped around the head to reduce bruising or swelling. Patients may temporarily need a thin surgical drainage tube which is placed behind the ear.
Any numbness, bruising, or thinned hair around the scar will fade in a few weeks; bandages, stitches and clips are removed within a day to a week. Most patients are back on their feet in a day or two, although the face may appear distorted and feel stiff, and many return to work within two weeks. At first you should be gentle with your skin and hair, and men may need to shave behind the neck and ears where areas of beard-growing skin have moved.
In addition to being located in inconspicuous places such as behind the hairline and in natural folds of the face and ears, scars fade to near invisibility in time.
Results of a facelift do not last forever; you may want to have another procedure in five or ten yeares. But in another sense, the effects are permanent; years later, your face will continue to look better than if you had never had the procedure.
Complications are rare but may include include hematoma, temporary or permanent nerve injury, infection, and allergic reactions to anesthesia.
» Learn more about Facelifts from the American Society of Plastic Surgeons
» For more information on Facelifts, please click here
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