As we age, it’s not unusual to notice the appearance of horizontal forehead wrinkles, sagging skin, drooping eyebrows, and frown lines. Although Botox injections can temporarily alleviate these signs of aging, the sole permanent solution to rejuvenate the forehead and eyebrow regions is through a brow lift surgery.

Brow lift surgery targets the upper third of the face, whereas full facelifts address the lower two-thirds of the face and the neck. Many patients combine these procedures to rejuvenate, tighten, and lift the entire face during a single procedure. Our goal during brow lift surgery is to accentuate your natural beauty and restore youthful skin in the forehead and brows – making you look better, not different. Poor brow lifts look unnaturally tightened, asymmetric, raise the hairline, or show visible scarring.

Before your brow lift, we will discuss your surgical goals and medical history during a consultation with your surgeon. We’ll examine your anatomy, take photographs and measurements, and will make treatment recommendations based on your goals. We will also walk you through the brow lift procedure, potential complications and risks, anesthesia, recovery, and aftercare. Some patients may be candidates for insurance coverage of brow lift surgery if it impacts their vision.

What to Expect

Brow lift procedures generally take around one to two hours, and you can go home the same day. Generally, direct and pretrichial brow lifts may be performed under local anesthesia to numb the area, whereas endoscopic brow lifts or brow lifts with eyelid surgery are typically performed under IV sedation. Someone else will need to drive you because you won’t be able to operate a vehicle after anesthesia.

Brow Lift Procedural Approaches

Based on your anatomy and goals, we’ll recommend the most appropriate treatment option. There are several different brow lift incision patterns and procedural approaches we can choose from:

• Direct brow lifts raise the entire brow and can be combined with eyelid surgery through the same incisions. For this procedure, we make an incision in the eyelid, above the eyebrow, or in the middle of the forehead. We hide these incisions in natural contours of the face or wrinkle creases to minimize scar appearance.
• During an endoscopic brow lift, we make tiny incisions and use a camera under the skin to navigate tissue planes while elevating the brow skin.
• Temporal brow lifts address drooping on the outer edges of the brows. For a temporal lift, we’ll make either a full incision or two small incisions tucked behind the hairline near the temples.

Medical Review: This procedural information has been medically reviewed by plastic and reconstructive surgeon, Brian A. Cripe, M.D.