What is a Brow Lift?

Also known as a forehead lift, a Brow Lift repositions low or sagging eyebrows. It can also help efface wrinkles on the forehead. This is a highly individualized procedure. There are multiple different techniques depending on the desired result, including coronal, endoscopic brow lift, and pretrichial brow lifts.

Temporal Brow Lift Look — How a brow lift will affect brow position

Forehead Lift Techniques

Coronal Forehead Lift

The Coronal Brow Lift is the original brow lift technique and still remains the gold standard of forehead lifts. The technique involves an incision from ear to ear, lifting the forehead and removing excess skin from the scalp.

Drawbacks to this technique include a longer scar, hair loss along the scar, and sensory loss in the scalp. Additionally, recovery time is often longer than the endoscopic forehead lift due to the size of the incision.

Coronal Forehead Lift — Location of incisions in a Coronal Brow Lift

Coronal Forehead Lift Scars — Scars are hidden inside the hairline.

Endoscopic Forehead Lift

This technique uses an endoscope, a surgical video device. Special instruments are placed through small incisions made within the scalp and temple hairline. This allows the tissue and muscle beneath the skin to be repositioned. They can be altered or removed, which corrects the source of visible creases and furrows in the forehead.

Endoscopic Brow Lift Planning — Location of scars in an Endoscopic Forehead Lift These are smaller and placed in strategic areas to allow brow lifting.

Endoscopic Brow Lift Scar Location — The scars are much smaller and hidden which results in quicker recovery

Since no scalp or skin is removed, this technique uses a device to hold the scalp elevated. The device is either a small screw or a plastic anchor that secured to the calvarium.

Temporal Forehead Lift

In this technique, only the lateral third of the brow is lifted via incisions inside the hairline in the temple. This corrects hooding seen in the lateral third of the upper eyelid. It does not treat the middle or central brow. Since it is a smaller procedure, it can be done under local anesthesia in the office.

Pretrichial Brow Lift

The technique involves the removal of forehead skin. It uses an incision along the hairline. The incision mostly extends along the lateral third of the superior hairline. It is less invasive than the open coronal or endoscopic procedures. The procedure can be done using local anesthesia in the office.

Brow Lift Results

First wound healing takes 5 to 10 days, at which time any sutures or clips will be removed. You will be ready to return to work and normal activity at this time. Cosmetics can camouflage any bruising that remains.

Healing will continue for several weeks. The swelling will dissipate, and incision lines will refine and fade. It take several months for your full recovery.

Visit the American Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery website to learn more about brow lifts.