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A brow lift can revitalize a drooping or lined forehead, helping you to look less angry, sad or tired. Using minimally invasive (endoscopic) methods, a brow lift involves 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 facelift to improve the look of the eyes and other areas of the face.
Endoscopic Brow Lift Procedure Details
In an endoscopic brow lift, the 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 one of these incisions 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.
Dr. Funt uses the endotine forehead device instead of non-absorbable sutures in a brow lift. It lifts the brow tissues using several points of contact instead of only one as with 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.
Brow Lift 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 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.
A traditional brow lift (also known as coronal brow lift) requires a single long incision, whereas with endoscopic brow lift, Dr. Funt makes a series of tiny incisions concealed within the patient’s hairline. Through these small incisions, Dr. Funt uses an endoscope (a microscopic camera with a light) that guides his surgical implements to make the necessary changes to the skin and muscles, thus avoiding the need for the longer incision.
Because of its less invasive nature, endoscopic brow lift only requires about one week of downtime before you can resume work and other normal activities. (However, all patients recover at their own pace, so your healing may be different.) Most of the bruising and swelling subsides in this same time span.
