Do you notice your brows sagging and your forehead creasing as you age? Are you concerned that your forehead lines make you look tired or upset all the time? Do you want your brows lifted and your forehead smoothed to achieve a natural, youthful look? If so, a brow lift could be the perfect procedure to give you instant, long-lasting results. It’s proudly offered by Kaniff Cosmetic Medical Center in Sacramento, CA, and we can transform your appearance, giving you a boost in confidence when you look in the mirror.
What Is a Brow Lift?
A brow lift is a minimally invasive, surgical facelift procedure designed to tighten the skin on your forehead, lift your brows to give your eyes a more open, youthful appearance, and minimize forehead lines and wrinkles. There are several safe, effective surgical options to lift a sagging brow, all of which your doctor will discuss with you during your consultation.
Consultation
If you’re considering a brow lift surgery, you’ll sit down with your doctor to discuss the procedure, the recovery process, and your ideal results. Your doctor will explain and choose the best surgery for your unique case. This often includes asking you to point out areas you’d like to see improved in a mirror, taking photos to provide a before and after comparison, and evaluating the elasticity of your skin.
You’ll be able to ask any questions you may have and ensure that you’ve chosen the best option to address your cosmetic concern. Depending on your hair length, your doctor may recommend taking some time to grow your hair longer to help cover the incision site as it heals.
Preparation
Medications and Supplements
Prior to your procedure, you’ll need to disclose any medications you’re taking in order for your doctor to confirm that they’re safe to take during surgery. If not, you’ll need to stop taking these medications about 2 weeks before surgery.
Make sure to mention herbal supplements as well as prescription medications. Some of these supplements can interact negatively with general anesthesia.
Lifestyle Changes
You’ll also be asked to stop smoking, as nicotine can result in a poor healing process. You should also limit alcohol consumption and stop taking blood-thinning and anti-inflammatory pain relievers like aspirin, as these substances can cause more bruising during the healing process. If you need an over-the-counter pain killer, switch to acetaminophen from two weeks prior to the procedure until after you’ve healed.
Just Before Surgery
Before you go to your doctor’s office, give your hair a thorough wash to make sure it’s clean, since you won’t be able to shower for about 2 days after surgery. Buy a small bottle of gentle, fragrance and medication-free shampoo like baby shampoo to use after surgery. You also want to ask a friend or family member to come with you to the procedure, drive you home afterwards, and stay with you overnight.
Set up your recovery area before you go to the doctor’s office. Keep comfortable clothes, reading material and entertainment options, and fluids close by. You can even prepare a few frozen meals to eat after surgery. Keep a pain reliever like acetaminophen on hand to take as needed after your procedure. Your doctor may also prescribe a pain reliever for you to take during the first few days after surgery.
Procedure
During your surgery, you will usually be given general anesthesia and be asleep for the entire procedure. Your doctor will make a series of strategic incisions behind your hairline on your scalp. The skin on your forehead will be released and pulled up to decrease wrinkling, eliminate forehead lines, and achieve a younger appearance. Your doctor will close the incisions, bandage the incision sites, and fit you with compression helmet dressing to keep the incisions clean and sterile.
This minimally invasive procedure takes between 1-2 hours alone. You may opt to combine it with other cosmetic procedures like eyelid surgery, which can complement the results of a brow lift and target other cosmetic concerns at the same time. Combining procedures results in a longer time in surgery and a longer recovery process, but it can be a good way to address several issues at once and saves you time in the end.
Recovery
The First 48 Hours
Once you wake up from your surgery, you’ll be closely monitored to make sure everything is normal. Once your doctor is happy with your results, you’ll be discharged. Your friend or family member will drive you home, where you should plan to rest for approximately 48 hours.
It’s good to have someone stay with you for this period of time to ensure your safety and help you with any normal routines like cooking. To minimize swelling, sleep elevated on your back with 2-3 pillows propping you up.
You’ll usually return for an initial checkup the day after surgery; your doctor will check the progress of your healing and remove bandaging.
After 48 Hours
You can shower after 48 hours, but you should keep your head tilted back and use a fragrance-free, mild shampoo like baby shampoo. You should also avoid medicated shampoo. You can begin using your normal shampoo after about 10 days with your doctor’s approval.
Avoid strenuous activity, like heavy lifting or housework that may elevate your blood pressure, for about 3-4 weeks. You should also avoid using hair rollers or hair dryers for 3 weeks, and don’t dye or chemically treat your hair until your doctor gives you permission (usually 4-6 weeks after surgery). When in doubt, ask your doctor if you’re ready to re-introduce an activity or hair product back into your normal routine. You should expect to resume driving and return to work within a week of surgery.
Results
At One Week
Sutures or staples are typically removed about a week after this procedure. As your scalp heals over time, you may experience a tingling or itching sensation as full feeling returns. This is normal and means that your healing process is going well.
At Six Months
Your final results should be visible at about six months. By this point, your incision and scalp will have healed, your forehead skin will have settled in its new position, and your friends have probably asked you what you changed about your appearance.
Long-Term Results
While it helps minimize signs of aging, a brow lift is not a permanent solution due to the continuing effects of gravity and growing older. Over time, our skin sags, which may mean that you need to pursue follow-up treatments in the future to maintain your results. This could involve another brow lift procedure or treatments like Botox, which can also be used to complement the effects of this procedure.
You should expect your new look to last about 7-10 years. During this time, keep visiting your doctor to address any issues and to come up with a new treatment plan to maintain your results.
Do I Need a Brow Lift?
If you’ve considered a brow lift in the past, you probably have visible cosmetic concerns in your forehead area. These can include drooping skin which makes you appear tired and fine lines and forehead wrinkles that can make you appear angry or upset, even when you aren’t. For many people, these issues are a source of insecurity.
Not only are sagging skin and wrinkles signs of aging, but they can affect the way people perceive you when they communicate negative emotions without you even realizing it.
The best way to determine whether this procedure is right for you is to consider how your appearance affects your everyday life. Lacking confidence in any area of our lives can rob us of joy and occupy our minds even when we should be experiencing our happiest moments. If you’re constantly worrying about the way you look and wish that there was an easy fix for your forehead insecurities, this surgery is an excellent option to help you reclaim your life and stop fixating on treatable issues.
A Modern Approach for Best Results
Since we spend so much of our time looking at one another’s faces, we’re often hyper-aware of how our faces appear. In the past, these surgeries were not cosmetically attractive. The incision used to be made across the forehead instead of back behind the hairline on the scalp, and many people chose to live with the issues rather than risk an unsightly scar. However, today brow surgeries are safe, effective, and have virtually invisible incision sites well-hidden by hair.
Will you look perpetually surprised, or will your brows be too high once the procedure is done? Thanks to the way this procedure has been modernized in recent years, we are now able to provide the most natural and cosmetically attractive results. Your forehead lines will be smoothed away, and your sagging skin, which can make you appear older, will be stretched to open your eyes and make you appear instantly younger.
Your doctor will go over all of this information with you when you create your personalized treatment plan, which will guide your doctor in choosing the best surgical methods to achieve your ideal results.
Benefits
This procedure offers a new appearance through one simple outpatient surgery. It’s easy and delivers undeniable results which can be enhanced through adding additional cosmetic surgeries with or after this one. Seeing your wrinkles disappear along with any involuntary negative expressions can make you look younger and more approachable, improving your everyday life and giving your self-confidence an enormous boost. Best of all, you’ll get to enjoy the results of your surgery for up to 10 years, making this one of the longest-lasting solutions to brow issues.
Who Is an Ideal Candidate?
This procedure is an ideal solution for men and women concerned about the appearance of sagging skin and wrinkles on their forehead. Candidates should not have any life-threatening diseases and should not smoke. Those who do smoke will need to stop several weeks before surgery to ensure ideal healing. Those with thinning hair, receding hairlines, or baldness are not ideal candidates.
This procedure is not only for those concerned with signs of aging. Younger adults can also experience a sagging brow. The American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery reports that more than 30,000 brow lifts were performed in the US last year, and just under 90% of these were performed on patients aged 19-50.
Conclusion
Don’t spend another day worrying about how people perceive you or standing in front of the mirror thinking how tired you appear. Brow lift surgery can offer you excellent, long-term results that will transform your appearance and help you feel confident about the way you are seen by others. Results are quick to appear, and your recovery time is relatively short, which means that you won’t need to put your life on hold to achieve your ideal results.
If you’re ready to learn more, reach out to the experts at Kaniff Cosmetic Medical Center in Sacramento, CA to schedule your initial consultation today! Our dedicated team of professionals is ready to answer your questions and assist you on your journey to achieving a natural, younger appearance and feeling great in your own skin.
