Question:
Does an endoscopic browlift involve surgery? My droopy eyelids make me appear tired all of the time. I am 50 years old and have never had plastic surgery of any kind.
Answer:
An endoscopic browlift is a surgical procedure. It involves an IV sedation and takes about an hour. Small incisions are created in your hair and used to access areas around your eyes, release and lift them to a more youthful position. Often an upper eyelid blepharoplasty is combined with the browlift to achieve the optimal result. The recovery is from 7-10 days.
Posted by Dr. Buckingham
Question:
Is an endoscopic forehead lift a less invasive procedure than a normal forehead lift?
Answer:
That is somewhat a matter of opinion. My opinion is yes. A “normal” forehead lift is usually one in which an open incision is created either in the middle of the forehead, at the hairline or behind the hairline. In each of those procedures there is a longer scar and in the latter two there is numbness created behind the scar. In the endoscopic approach the incisions are oriented vertically and are separated from one another. This does not create numbness, usually, and has less risk of visible scarring. The other forehead lifting procedures are still a good option for some patients, but we prefer the endoscopic approach.
Posted by Dr. Buckingham
Question:
I am a 62 year old woman interested in having a forehead lift. However, I have seen many people who look as if they have a “surprised” expression on their faces after having the procedure and I fear that I may look the same. How often does this happen and how can I be sure that this won’t happen to me?
Answer:
Patients develop a surprised look after a forehead lift because the surgeon was overly aggressive with the procedure. This is easily avoidable, however you must understand that the desired result from the lift is a subtle elevation of the brow and not to compensate for other issues by over-elevating the brow. Believe it or not some patients request their brow to be lifted to a level which is unnatural. We refer those patients to another surgeon. We are also conservative in selecting patients for a brow lift and believe that often the aging is not due to brow descent, but instead due to the brow fat pad decreasing in size and no longer filling out the skin of the brow and leading to the illusion of brow descent. The best way to understand this is to look at a photo of the patient in youth to determine the relative contribution of descent versus volume loss. In many cases we will use fillers of Restylane, Juvederm, Radiesse or autologous fat to rejuvenate the brow by adding the lost volume back to the area rather then lifting the brow. This creates a more youthful appearance without the unnatural look of an overzealous brow lift.
Posted by Dr. Buckingham
Question:
Is 24 too young to get a forehead lift? I have a very droopy brow area which I think is hereditary because my Mom and sisters do too. Is there anything else that would fix this?
Answer:
24 is pretty young. You would have to have a significantly low brow to convince me that a brow lift is right for you at that age. It would be a unique situation that would warrant surgical intervention. If however you truly do have a brow position that is significantly low then a brow lift would be the way, and likely the only way to improve the situation. A very thoughtful consultation would be indicated to see if that procedure would be right for you.
Posted by Dr. Buckingham
Holly,
Forehead lift is a generic term describing the area to be lifted. Endoscopic forehead lift describes the specific technique. In general a forehead lift can be performed via an open technique or endoscopically. The open technique can be performed through incisions above the brow, in the mid-forehead, at the hairline or behind the hairline. The latter three are all good techniques in the right patient, however the latter two have the disadvantage of creating more numbness and possibility for visible scarring. (In the right hands however they work great) We prefer an endoscopic technique for most of our female patients however because the technique offers the advantage of less scarring, less numbness and great results. The endoscopic technique involves making small incisions in the hair that are remote from each other. Through the incisions special curved instruments are passed that allow the brow to be elevated and held in position. There are examples of many endoscopic browlifts as well as some other techniques (in men) on the website. Please take some time to review the photos and give us a call or email for an appointment at your convenience.
Ed Buckingham
