Thinking About A Brow Lift? Here’s Everything You Need To Know
Cosmetic Treatments have fast gained popularity among people who want to keep the effects of gravity and subsequent aging off their faces. While these are natural processes that everyone has to go through, the prospect of minimizing adverse effects that make your face lose its youthful appearance is quite appealing.
Hence, together with cosmetic procedures like facelift and chin augmentation, brow lifts have steadily increased in demand. Most famous among females, brow lifts are known to smoothen wrinkles on the forehead, creases that appear on the eyelid and drooping eyebrows that can easily add an extra ten years to an individual’s age.
Even though brow lifts are relatively simple procedures that take a mere hour or two to be completed, it is always advisable to contact a specialist plastic surgery facility whenever you want to go ahead with this treatment. Southwest Plastic Surgery Practice is one such clinic that caters to patients from all across New Mexico, Southwestern Texas and Northern Mexico. Being a state of the art center, Southwest has a large client base that boasts skillfully executed brow lifts, together with other facial cosmetic treatments.
Dr. Agullo at the Southwest Plastic Surgery Practice has been trained at the world famous Mayo Clinic and hold double degrees in General and Cosmetic Surgery. With years of experience in this field, Dr. Agullo is highly professional yet offers completely individualized services and advice to every patient.
Do You Qualify For a Brow Lift?
A brow lift can significantly improve your morale and self esteem. With a wrinkle free forehead and lifted eyebrows, you can feel young and rejuvenated every time you step out in public. However, before Dr. Agullo suggests this surgery for you, a number of preliminary considerations must be accounted for.
An ideal candidate for a brow lift surgery is a middle aged individual between the age of 40 and 60. This person should have a sound medical history with no complications or severe health conditions. Moreover, a brow lift shows maximum results when the original brow line is severely drooping, bulging or is surrounded by wrinkles.
Therefore, before you opt for a brow lift, make sure you consult Dr. Agullo at Southwest Plastic Surgery to get the best opinion regarding the feasibility of the treatment.
Brow Lift Combination Surgeries
Thinking of a brow lift as the tip of the iceberg wouldn’t be wrong. Because there are so many cosmetic procedures that enhance the face and its features, a brow lift is often combined with these treatments to give the face a youthful and lively look.
A one-on-one consultation with Dr. Agullo will be the best way to decide which combination procedures to opt for. The surgeon will do thorough examination of your facial features and medical history. As a result of these considerations, you may qualify for any one (or all) of the following combination procedures:
- Lip augmentation
- Eyelid surgery
- Rhinoplasty
- Neck Lift
- Facelift (which includes all of the above treatments)
Brow Lift Techniques Used At Southwest
Because a brow lift has now become a common treatment, rapid technological advancement has been experienced for this procedure. At Southwest Plastic Surgery, Dr. Agullo uses cutting edge technology and equipment to make sure a brow lift is done with great precision and skill.
Scheduling a consultation session is a general practice with Dr. Agullo. During this session, the doctor will educate you regarding the techniques that are used for a brow lift so that you know what to expect from the surgery. While all techniques used for the procedure are board certified, using one over the other depends on your preference, your medical history and the surgeon’s assessment of how well you can cope post surgery.
The most commonly used techniques include the following:
- Temporal Brow Lift:
A temporal brow lift is also called browplasty or brow shaping. This technique is often used in a complete facelift to shape the eyebrows and give a vibrant and lively look to a patient’s face. A temporal brow lift focuses on the contour of the brows instead of their height.
- Endoscopic Brow Lift or Forehead Lift:
An Endoscopic Brow Lift is one of the most technologically advanced cosmetic procedures. During this technique, the surgeon uses a small camera to see the structure, muscles and tissue of the forehead. He then tweaks them through small incisions. Hence, Endoscopic Brow Lifts are minimally invasive, leading to very short recovery periods.
- Periorbital Rejuvenation:
A very common cause of an eyebrow lift is lateral drooping. A Periorbital Rejuvenation shifts the eyebrows laterally instead of centrally; giving the patient’s facial expressions a very relaxed appearance instead of an angry and aggressive one. Such a technique also restores shape to the upper eyelid.
- Coronal Brow Lift:
A Coronal Brow Lift is done by making an incision on the crown of the head extending behind each ear. These incisions are usually hidden behind the hairline to minimize scarring after recovery. A Coronal Brow Lift elevates drooping eyebrows.
- Direct Brow Lift:
A Direct Brow Lift shifts the position of the eyebrows on the face to give it a more relaxed and youthful appearance. This technique is usually used when eyebrows sag from their original place due to severe wrinkling and aging.
Preparing For A Brow Lift Surgery
A typical brow lift is an out-patient procedure. Therefore, while you do not need to worry about staying at the clinic for more than a few hours, some level of preparation is a must to ensure the prerequisites for a brow lift are met.
Guidelines and preparation tips will be explained to you by Dr. Agullo in detail during the consultation sessions. Listen to these instructions carefully and do just as advised to avoid any complications during the treatment. Some of the most important surgery preparation guidelines are:
- Schedule a physical exam with the team at Southwest as suggested by your Plastic Surgeon.
- Quit smoking at least two weeks before the surgery. Smoking is not only injurious to health, it also raises the chances of blood clots.
- Stock your refrigerator with ice packs to soothe swelling and soreness after the surgery.
- Buy all prescribed medications beforehand so that you can start taking doses as soon as you come out of surgery.
- Because a brow lift is part of a facial cosmetic procedure, you will be asked to avoid excessive UV exposure 2 weeks before the surgery and at least 2 months after it.
Stop eating and drinking at 12 am the night before the procedure is scheduled.
- Do not apply make-up or cream on your face on the day of the surgery.
- Arrange for a friend or family member to escort you and drive you back and forth from the clinic to avoid inconvenience at the eleventh hour.
- It is highly advisable that you stay away from painkillers and medications that are blood thinners for the duration of the recovery period.
Recovery Post-Surgery
In itself, a brow lift is a simple procedure. Depending on the technique used for the lift, recovery time may vary from a few days to a couple of weeks. For instance, the Endoscopic lift technique has a very quick recovery because it is the least invasive. On the other hand, if the Coronal Lift is used, recovery may take a while.
In either case, swelling of the brow line and the forehead is a common sight. Many patients report numbness and loss of hair around the incisions and on the forehead, while others complain of headaches and bleeding from the wounds. Don’t worry, all these signs are temporary and will only last for the duration of the recovery period.
Once a few weeks go by and the soreness and sensitivity subside, you will see the actual results of the brow lift. With a distinguished brow line, one that is not surrounded by wrinkles and sagging skin, you will feel a boost of self confidence and morale.
The Cost Of A Brow Lift Surgery
It is highly imperative that you contact a Board Certified Surgeon for a Brow Lift Cosmetic Treatment. Despite being a simple procedure, there are a number of things that can go wrong if a proper medical exam and analysis is not conducted- something only a professional and experienced surgeon can do.
For this reason, a brow lift surgery comes with a price tag. Depending on the combination procedures you want, together with uplifting your brow line, the cost of this treatment can be anywhere between $3000 to $8000. This cost is also dependant on whether this surgery is performed endoscopically or traditionally. Moreover, the kind of anesthesia used is also a major determinant of the final expense. A brow lift surgery completed with general anesthesia is more costly compared to one that is done via conscious sedation.
The cost of a brow lift typically covers:
- The fee of the surgeon.
- Expenses of medical supplies and facility in use.
- Cost of anesthesia and a trained anesthesiologist.
- The fee of the medical staff serving you.
- Any unforeseen treatments needed during or after surgery.
- The cost of follow up appointments to check progress or remove stitches.
Hence, one cannot attach a standard cost to a brow lift because there are many variables that govern this aspect. Dr. Agullo will give you a final estimate once all the above factors have been taken into account.
