Brow lifts can revitalize drooping or lined foreheads, helping you to look less angry, sad or tired. They are extremely trusted by the medical community and are notorious for their quality results - in fact, more than 88,000 were performed throughout 2021, according to The American Society of Plastic Surgeons.
What Is a Brow Lift? A brow lift (also known as a forehead lift) is a surgical procedure that reduces wrinkles and folds above the eyebrows by adjusting the underlying muscle and removing excess skin. Using either traditional or minimally invasive (endoscopic) methods, a more youthful appearance can be achieved. The procedure is often combined with other operations such as eyelid surgery and facelifts to improve the look of your eyes and other areas of the face. Conveniently located in Santa Barbara, Dr. Lowenstein cares for many brow lift surgery patients from Santa Maria, Bakersfield, Ventura and Thousand Oaks.
Why Do We Need Brow Lift? As we express ourselves in daily life, our muscles are constantly folding and unfolding the skin on our faces. Eventually, those folds begin to hold their shape, even when the muscles aren’t working. While this is a result of time, it is also caused by our body’s natural decline in collagen production. Collagen is an essential component to maintaining a taut appearance, and after the age of 20, we lose 1% of it every year. We need solutions like brow lifts because there is no way to prevent your body from losing collagen. Some procedures like Botox can help with facial folding, but eventually, the toll will be taken on the skin and the only way to fix it will be through surgery.
Am I a Candidate for a Brow Lift? If you are unhappy with the appearance of your forehead, then you would likely benefit from a brow lift procedure. However, the best candidates are those who are in good physical health, are free from problematic underlying medical conditions, live an active lifestyle, do not smoke, do not excessively drink, and do not do drugs. It is also essential to have realistic expectations about what a brow lift can achieve. Otherwise, you are setting yourself up for disappointment in what would be considered an otherwise successful surgery.
Get Your Brow Lift at Montecito Plastic Surgery. For more information about how you can benefit from a brow lift, give our Santa Barbara office a call at (805) 969-9004. You can also fill out our online contact form to be called by one of our staff members at a time better suited to your schedule.
FAQS
We will provide you with a list of preoperative instructions. These could include changes to medications or supplements or a list of environmental factors to avoid. You should always quit smoking right away since it drastically increases the likelihood of suffering a surgical complication. People who smoke tend to have poorer wound healing, which means longer recoveries and more visible scarring. You should also plan to have someone with you on the day of the surgery to drive you to and from the office. You will not be able to operate a vehicle because of the anesthesia, and it is helpful to have someone you trust around just in case you need help with small tasks.
It typically takes around two weeks for the initial wound to heal. A couple of things happen around this time: you can typically return to work and normal activities as long as they are not strenuous, and you will likely have sutures or clips removed. Some swelling or redness may persist for an additional few weeks, and it may even take several months for your recovery to complete, but the majority of your results will be noticeable around the two-week mark. The results you achieve through your brow lift will be permanent, and you can expect them to improve the appearance of your forehead substantially. Although no procedure can prevent additional skin sagging from occurring, your forehead will always look better than it would have if the surgery had never been performed.
A brow lift can be easily combined with a plethora of surgical and nonsurgical procedures. If you are looking to have more than one surgery done, such as a facelift, neck lift or eyelid surgery, we highly recommend combining them for a few reasons. The first is that you will drastically decrease the time you will spend recovering if you allow multiple parts of your body to recover at once. This also minimizes the amount of time you are under anesthesia, decreasing the chances of a complication. But you will also save yourself potentially thousands of dollars since facility and anesthesia fees only need to be paid once. If you are looking to have nonsurgical additions to your procedure, it is best to work with our team to determine the best treatment plan. Botox, dermal fillers, PRP treatment, skin resurfacing - all of these are great ways to improve your appearance without additional surgery.
| Topic | Key Points |
|---|---|
| Cost | According to The American Society of Plastic Surgeons, the average cost of a brow (forehead) lift is about $3,900; final price varies by history, goals, and treatment areas. |
| Techniques | Endoscopic brow lift is favored; coronal and direct lifts are less common; modern approaches focus on minimal incisions and muscle adjustment. |
| Recovery | Most return to regular activities within a few days to two weeks; swelling and bruising diminish over several weeks to months. |
| Combining Procedures | Brow lift often paired with eyelid surgery, facelift, or neck lift to reduce recovery time and cost. |
A brow lift is a surgery that lifts the brows, creating more distance between the lash line and the eyebrow. It will make the eye area look more alert and less heavy. Often, a brow lift is used in conjunction with an upper blepharoplasty to help rejuvenate the brow and upper eyelid region. Brow lifts are most often done under general anesthesia.
Two approaches used to achieve a full brow lift include:
- Coronal brow lift
- Endoscopic brow lift
In most cases surgeons favor the endoscopic brow lift. During your consultation with Dr. An incision is made along the hair-bearing scalp from the upper aspect of one ear across the scalp to the upper aspect of the other ear. The soft tissues of the entire forehead are then elevated from the underlying bony attachments and the dissection is continued all the way from the scalp incision to the level of the eyebrows. The soft tissues of the entire brow are then lifted upward elevating the brow and eyebrows to the desired position. This procedure may shift the hairline back a bit. In individuals with a low hairline, this may be desirable. An endoscopic brow lift uses special thin, long instruments and a camera to achieve a brow lift without extensive incisions. The procedure is performed by making several small incisions in the scalp, behind the hairline, and placing the camera and instruments through them. The camera guides the surgeon so that she can see the muscles, nerves, and vessels during surgery and safely accomplish all dissection. Once the skin and muscles are released from the underlying bony attachments, some of the muscle fibers are cut out to soften the forehead wrinkles. The soft tissues are then lifted upward and tightened to elevate the brows and forehead.
Meet Dr. Sara Yegiyants, MD, FACS is a board-certified plastic surgeon specializing in surgical and non-invasive procedures. Learn more about Dr. Lifestyle and genetics influence the rate of aging, and subsequently affect the longevity of these cosmetic procedures. Plastic surgery procedures, including brow lifts, vary in terms of cost based on a specific surgery and other factors. We discuss the cost during a consultation with Dr. Yegiyants along with our payment and financing options through Alphaeon® and CareCredit®. Additionally, if the procedure is deemed to be medically necessary, we help patients determine if their health insurance policies provide coverage.
We welcome residents in or near Santa Barbara, Ventura, and Santa Maria to learn more about how a brow/forehead lift can improve their life. Ready to take the next steps towards booking a procedure? Many patients believe they need an eyelift when, in fact, the brow needs to be addressed with cosmetic surgery to resolve drooping eyelids or both. As the look of your forehead and eyes creates a visual impact, it may be important to you to rejuvenate your face, so it has more of the appeal of youth. A brow lift in Santa Barbara and Oxnard can make a significant difference in facial appearance, smoothing lines and correcting droopy eyebrows. Dr. Morrissette performs several types of brow lift procedures. One is called a temporal brow lift and is appropriate for patients with minimal wrinkles and creases on the brow who only need to raise the position of the brows. The mini-open brow lift addresses both drooping eyebrows and forehead wrinkles. Many people feel that they need eyelid surgery because they have droopy upper eyelids. In actuality, they may need their forehead and eyebrow "lifted" to a more youthful position. Since at times it is the drooping of the eyebrows that is the problem, it is important for the surgeon and the patient to fully realize the contribution of droopy eyebrows before removing eyelid skin. Elevating the eyebrows, or brow lift in Santa Barbara, can smooth horizontal forehead wrinkles and raise the eyebrows to a more youthful-looking position. In my office, I prefer to perform brow lift surgery using either a mini-open browlift or a temporal brow lift. With the mini-open browlift technique, the problem of forehead wrinkles is addressed, as well as droopy eyebrows. Dr. Individual results may vary. Your eyes are often the first thing that people notice about you, and are an important aspect of your overall appearance. Your eyelid skin is smooth, but over time, the eyelid skin stretches, the fat bulges forward, and the muscles weaken. The eyebrows may also droop and sag (a condition called brow ptosis). Loose or baggy lids detract from your overall appearance and make you look tired or older. When the brow droops, it crowds more skin down over the upper lids and exaggerates the hooding and crow's feet at the outer corners of the eyes, making you look sad, tired, or angry. When severe enough, the upper eyelid skin may hang over the lashes and obstruct peripheral vision. Brow lift surgery has undergone an evolution in recent years. While direct brow lifts (incisions made at the upper edge of the brow hair line) are occasionally performed, other procedures such as mid-forehead and coronal lifts have been mostly abandoned. These older surgical approaches have been replaced by endoscopic techniques (with indirect brow suspension via sutures fixated into the outer table of the skull) and upper eyelid incision techniques (with the brow directly secured to periosteum which covers the bone). The latter technique is often successfully combined with upper eyelid blepharoplasty. Cold compresses are applied to reduce swelling and bruising. Antibiotic ointment will be prescribed. Strenuous activity should be minimized for several days. Discomfort is generally mild. Non-aspirin pain relievers are usually all that is necessary postoperatively. Aspirin products, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory medications like ibuprofen, and other blood thinners should be avoided before and after surgery as they may increase the risk of bruising and bleeding. Most patients are able to return to regular activities within several days. Excessive pain, bleeding, infection, or visual loss are extremely rare and have never occurred in any of Dr. Kohn's surgeries. As with any medical procedure, there may be other inherent risks that should be discussed with your surgeon. Brow lift surgery can provide both a more youthful appearance and functional improvement with minimal risk.
