Facial Surgery and Pain

Facial surgery is generally not considered painful by the majority of my patients. During surgery, local anesthesia is used that puts the entire face to sleep, similar to the feeling you get from visiting the dentist. After surgery, the face “wakes up” and you will feel some aching sensations. There is a natural period of swelling after the operation that lasts 48 to 72 hours. This swelling (in addition to the expected “lift” of the surgery), makes everything feel “tight” and can make you claustrophobic. Medications that relieve anxiety tend to be more beneficial than true narcotic pain medications. If you had the brow lift at the same time as a formal facelift, you probably would not have noticed much of a difference in the recovery. That being said, whatever you experienced for the facelift recovery, you can expect a similar recovery for the brow lift as well. On a side note, combining a brow lift at the same time as upper eyelids can be more problematic. The normal swelling process can keep the eyelids open when sleeping, and this can cause painful dry eyes. If you really need to have both the brow and upper lids done at the same time, be very vigilant at the eye lubrication regime that your surgeon prescribes.

Pain from an endoscopic brow lift is usually minimal and similar to the discomfort that you would experience with a facelift. The one thing that a brow lift will often have is a headache which can last for a day or two but generally subsides rather quickly. Most of my patients say that they use narcotic pain medicine for 1-2 days and then turn to over the counter medication without much of a problem.

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