A brow lift, also known as a forehead lift or forehead rejuvenation, is a cosmetic procedure to raise the brows. A brow lift improves the appearance of the forehead, brow, and area around the eyes by raising the soft tissue and skin of the forehead and brow.
An ophthalmologist should be in a position to evaluate the condition for which a patient wants a brow lift surgery. The doctor must assess the depth and location of the forehead, the rhytids of the forehead and the thickness of the skin, the shape of the hairline, the color and density and the length of the eyebrow cilia that must be taken into account while assessing the potential for post-operative alopecia or visible scarring.
In procedures when the skin between the hairline and brows are removed, candidates with short foreheads shall not fit in well. Patients having thick and dark eyebrows are good candidates for supraciliary incisions and patients having prominent horizontal forehead rhytids are good candidates for mid-forehead incisions with the rhytids. Incisions in these regions are not the right choices for people with receding hairlines and thinning hair.
In a direct brow lift, the incision is made right over the brow hairs to hide the incision effectively. The risks of visible scarring are high which makes this technique less suitable for young patients. A patient having deep horizontal forehead furrows are good candidates for a mid-forehead incision which gets hidden within the forehead wrinkles. The technique involves tightening of the skin but should be ideally limited to patients suffering from alopecia of the scalp and brows.
Direct brow approach is good for patients having facial nerve palsies as it works by removing tissues to give the lift and not by the contraction of brow elevator muscles or removal of brow depressor muscles. It can be performed unilaterally. An ellipse of skin is excised directly from the front. The form of the incision depends on the individual's problem. A patient with the brow's upright position is raised to the goal location manually. As the brow is allowed to settle in the resting position, a marking pen is placed in a stationary position and the amount of skin that needs to be removed is routinely marked. The operation is carried out under local anesthesia. An obvious complication of scarring and temporary numbness of the forehead may occur. The scarring can be hidden with the aid of topical concealers.
In hairline approaches the advantage over the above method is to reduce forehead rhytids and better camouflaging of the incisions. In this kind, there are types like coronal, petechial and endoscopic brow lift incisions exist.
In the pretrial method, the incisions are located anterior to the hairline and the coronal involves incisions posterior to the hairline. Long incisions are required from ear to ear and this can be daunting. The former is suitable for tall forehead patients and works by lowering the hairline and coronal will work by removing the hair-bearing part of the skin and it elevates the hairline. They can be done with intravenous sedation or general anesthesia. Surgical staples or tape can aid in keeping the hair from touching the wound.
In the field of endoscopic approaches, great technological advances have been made and this has affected the surgical and recovery time positively. They are more accepted by younger patients. Thick hair with normal hairline individuals can consider this kind of technique. Mild to moderate brow ptosis can be well addressed in this procedure. It greatly reduces bleeding and scarring. No tissue gets excised and the lift involves the position and adhesion of the periosteum and weakening of the brow depressor muscles. Dissection is conducted under the direction of an endoscope down to the upper orbital rim through three central incisions in a subperiosteal scheme. Fixing methods are critical and a number of options were used such as cortical bone tubes, suspension sutures and wires, internal plates and screws, Mitek anchors and tissue glues.