What are the changes that can be made to improve forehead aging?
- Elevate a low eyebrow
- The youthful eyebrows are typically located at the level of the brow bone. However, with aging, gravity pulls the forehead and eyebrows down.
- The brow can be lifted to various angles and heights .
- Elevate excess upper eyelid skin
- A Drooping brow pushes the skin below the eyebrow down toward the lashes and thus gives the appearance of extra eyelid skin. For many women the upper eyelid can be rejuvenated by lifting the forehead.
- However, a separate removal of eyelid skin (blepharoplasty) or the combination of blepharoplasty and the forehead lift may be most effective to create a youthful upper eyelid.
- Minimize Forehead Wrinkles
- The transverse wrinkles across the forehead are caused by muscles (frontalis) elevating the eyebrow and forehead. The weight on the eyelids will subconsciously cause you to lift your brows using the frontalis muscles.
- These muscles are not usually removed because you lose expression an may get more drooping eyelids.
- Elevating the forehead takes the weight off the eyelids so you have less subconscious tendency to lift the eyebrows and furrows are diminished.
- The transverse wrinkles across the forehead are caused by muscles (frontalis) elevating the eyebrow and forehead. The weight on the eyelids will subconsciously cause you to lift your brows using the frontalis muscles.
- Minimize Vertical Wrinkles between the eyebrows (glabella frown lines)
- Frown lines between the eyebrows are caused by contraction of the corugator muscles. The corrugator muscles pull the middle of the eyebrows downward and centrally. This gives the appearance of scowling and squinting.
- These wrinkles can be improved by removing the corrugator muscles muscle.
How is browlift surgery performed?
Brow lift surgery has 3 variations: minimal incision endoscopy, coronal scalp incision, and forehead and hairline incision. These methods vary in the position and length of the incision and the effect this has on the height of the forehead.
- Endoscopic Brow lift (limited incision)
- This method uses 2 very small incisions hidden in the scalp. Specialized endoscopic equipment with a fiberoptic light source attached to a high power video camera transmits the image to a TV monitor.
- No skin or scalp is removed. Rather, brow lift is achieved by shifting the forehead upwards and fixing at a higher position.
- Removal of the corrugator muscles that cause frowning.
- Coronal Forehead lift
- This was the original method that required a long incision across the entire scalp several inches behind the hairline.
- The lifting is achieved by removal of a strip of scalp (1-3 inches) that elevates the forehead by the tension created by tissue removal.
- This method elevates the frontal hairline and therefore is generally limited to use on individuals with a low hairline. I rarely use this method.
- Frontal Hairline Brow lift
- This method uses an incision along the junction of the frontal scalp hairline and the forehead skin.
- A segment of forehead skin is resected to create tension and elevate the forehead.
- This method is used for individuals with an excessively tall forehead.
