Will Open Brow Lift Scar Heal Nicely?

It’s not unusual for patients who
have used Botox for prolonged periods of time to eventually require a
browlift.  Although botox has a
profound impact on the upper facial muscles, the effects of gravity are unrelenting
and eventually result in drooping brows.

When this occurs a browlift is
usually necessary to correct the problem. In patients with high foreheads, an
open approach with a hairline incision may be necessary to avoid further
elevation of the hairline.

In the majority of patients who
undergo this type of browlift wound healing is excellent and scarring is
minimal.  Blond light skinned
patients tend to heal with minimal scarring.

Despite this, wound healing is
variable and rarely patients can have noticeable scarring with this
approach.  Under these
circumstances bangs are probably the best way to hide this type of scarring.

It’s important to discuss these
issues with your plastic surgeon. 
Your surgeon should be able to answer your questions and make this a
more comfortable experience.

Be very careful when asking for a brow lift, you might get it.  If you look up brow lift results in published papers and before and afters you will see that many surgeons successfully lift the brow.  Unfortunately a true brow lift makes patients look scared or surprised!  It is almost never necessary to elevate the medial third of the brow.  Many women actually benefit aesthetically from a slight lowering of the medial third.  On the contrary, there are few women even at your age that would not benefit from elevation of their lateral brow.  The reason for this is probably not what you think.  Much more important than the brow positionand shape is the infra brow skin.  If you look at yourself in the mirror you will see some bunching of skin under the brow next to your eye and a flat shape.  I call this the lateral hood.  The only kind of brow lift that I typically perform  I call a lateral hood lift.  If you gently pull up on your forehead skin above the lateral brow, you will see that a very subtle elevation makes you look younger.  This is mostly because it cleans up the lateral hood.  It is usually necessary to also restore brow volume at the same time as a lateral hood lift to create a beautiful rejuvenated shape.  I hope this helps!

All the best,

Rian A. Maercks M.D.