Brow Lift: Stories

I hear you!! I had a temporal browlift and flip flopped too, but I didn't ask for a browlift. I was concverned about lateral hooding of my eylids. 2 drs said teple lift and the other 2 said upper eyelid surgery and no temple lift. I wished I listened to the other 2 drs who advised against it. What was I thinking? The dr said the scars would be think lines. NOT. I have 2 wide scars (about 7 mm wide to be exact) on the sides of my head. I was lied to. My brows also do this weird thing where one looks higher than the other and then settles. It is not worth the surgery unless you have low brows. Dont do it if your brows are at or above your orbital rim.

When a doctor starts recommending other procedures that you feel are unnecessary, run like hell; don't walk.

Faith2012 , The same thing happened to me. I went to an initial appointment to ask about a neck/chin lift and possibly eye lid surgery, but then the surgeon recommended a mid-face lift and forehead lift, and he told me I would have better, more natural results. He said I would still look like me, only rested and youthful because it would look so natural. He did not answer all of my questions and he brushed off any concerns I had as unnecessary worries. They rushed me from the consult appointment directly into his "patient coordinator's" office where she assumed I was going to schedule the surgeries and made me feel a little pressured to get an appointment before he was too booked. I tried to back out of the surgeries altogether a few weeks before my appointment, but she was aggressive about insisting I just had cold feet, but to trust the doctor because I would be thrilled with the results. Foolishly, I let her pressure me to go ahead. Despite being more expensive than the average going rate, the surgeon did not remove enough eyelid skin to make much of a difference because he, thankfully, was being conservative due to the swelling from the other procedures before he got to my eyes. He told me that would happen so he would tweak them later. He didn't and he had no interest in even discussing it with me. So after paying a premium price, my eyelids are still quite heavy. The forehead lift also was very minimal; certainly not worth the pain, loss of hair and hairline, nerve damage, and still nighttime itching on my scalp more than two years later! One unanticipated after-effect he never mentioned it that the surgery has made the difference in my eye sizes more obvious! I don't know why, but before the surgery the fact that my left eye is smaller than my right was rarely noticeable, but now it is. I'm shocked by it when I see photos of myself now. It is the same for my cheeks. Everyone's face is different on side from the other, but like with most people, it wasn't obvious before my surgery. Now it is! One cheek is much fuller than the other. It looks like two faces on one. Also, what he didn't tell me, and most don't tell patients this in advance, the mid-face lift also made my nose look a little larger. When the rest of the face is pulled up, the nose that's aged isn't pulled up too but just stays where it was, creating the look of a longer nose. It's true of the ears too, but my hair covers my ears so that doesn't really matter to me. Also, because he pulled up my mid-face, where he stitched me it makes my nostrils pull up and out when I smile, adding to the beak look and I hate it! Furthermore, it pulls the skin on my nose differently from before, more to one side than before which changes how the flesh sits on the top of my nose. Because the flesh doesn't sit where it did, there is an indentation on the top of the end of my nose, changing the shape just enough to create a little hook at the end. My nose looks bigger with a hook at the end, like a beak. Now I don't like my nose profile either! I was worried about being left with a lumpy chin, but the patient coordinator insisted I would be left with "a firm, smooth chin" that I would "love and be very happy with." It turned out lumpy and when he fixed it, he left me with a huge, visible scar under my chin all the way to the top of my throat. He said he needed to it that way to get the best result. He's already been too aggressive the first time and he'd damaged a gland under my left ear.That gland kept swelling up like a toad's for a year before it finally quit. At six months post-surgery, he said he didn't know why it was swelling. Yes he did. Worst of all, he ruined my smile. My upper lip is different now and when I smile, it is obvious where he stitched everything together on each side of my nose, and it pulls tight creating an ugly ridge running horizontally under my nose. He never said anything about lifting my upper lip or making it tight! At six months post-surgery I told him I was embarrassed by smile and asked if anything could be done about and his response was to say, "Don't be a glass half-full person!" I would never have agreed to that procedure if he'd told me it was a possibility this would be my outcome! Before the surgery, I had a pretty smile other people liked. Now I avoid smiling and I am mortified by it. It's been two years with no improvement. I think there needs some ethics reforms imposed on this profession, requiring full and honest disclosure, no commissions for anyone working in the office with patients, as I now suspect the patient coordinator was, and not operating on any patients expressing doubt and/or a desire to cancel or postpone these surgeries. Good luck to you.

Thanks Karen! I hope you have a speedy recovery with the results you were hoping for. You have a good optimistic outlook and I'm so glad that you found a great doctor. It was really stupid of me to do this in the first place because I didn't need it but it was sooo much cheaper to do all the surgeries at the same time and was told that if I did it now I wouldn't have to do it later. I was also led to believe that it was a lot less complicated surgery than it actually is therefore I had no idea that the recovery time was so long. They knew I was on the fence on most of the surgeries they sold me therefore never spoke of the long recovery or any of the complications or side-effects. It has gotten somewhat better but I still don't like the look and sometimes look in the mirror only to find one eyebrow waaay up there and I have to pull it back down. You know, this may sound crazy but I looked at a bunch of my old and new pictures and my forehead appears bigger now. I didn't think that was possible but after researching it, I found that it is. No wonder I look so different, even from a distance. Maybe there is still swelling and will resolve over time. Thanks very much for the information.

Hi Faith,

Yes, I too am sorry this has been such a hassle for you. I am 5 weeks post op from an eyebrow lift and am experiencing 1 slightly droopy eye while in the recovery stages. I also have complete paralysis on left side of forehead and only minimal movement on the right forehead/eyebrow. BUT, I DO know that one has to wait for complete healing before one is to judge whether they like it or not or were happy with it. I have seen a lot of people stating some surgery wasn't worth it only to come back a year later with an update saying everything is fine now. People need to be aware of these long term side effects of recovery for long-term results. It goes both ways. It's very serious stuff. WE have to be willing to wait up to 1 year for results, there have even been cases of people who have had to wait up to 2 years. My advice is to do your homework. Really scout out an EXCELLENT surgeon. Price low/high doesn't necessarily indicate a great surgeon AND in Beverly Hills, the capital of Plastic Surgery, has practicing surgeons who have not been board certified. BEWARE!! Luckily, I have AN AMAZING Doctor who never over sells (yes, that was wrong of them to talk you into something-I went to lots and lots of TOP DOCS in the L.A./Beverly Hills area all who wished to over sell me, but guess what? It's not about their bills or luxuries, it's about ME. It's about the only thing I am incredibly selfish about in life. Cosmetic Surgery! This I know from my surgeon: Results take 3/6/12 months to settle. He has performed over 12,000 browlifts and his patients have never had permanent damage. I intend to wait to see whether all ends well. So, for the meantime, the jury is out.

Hang in there! And please be sure and give us updates regarding changes whether there has been or not. We hang on every one of your words and are cheering for a successful recovery! :D