What You Need to Know Beforehand
Which type of brow lift is right for me ?
Your age, skin quality and your anatomic proportions are key in choosing the Browlift technique best suited to you. We will discuss with you if either a direct excision brow lift or a lifting from an incision in your temples (temporal lift) is more appropriate, furthermore we will examine and explain if any changes to your forehead skin would be advisable for the best aesthetic outcome.
Can my skin be addressed at the same time ?
If your skin shows signs of photo-ageing like stains, pigmentation, fine lines / rhytids and a general loss of brilliance a peeling maybe recommended by us and performed at the same time as your facelift surgery to minimize downtime.
Where are the scars placed ?
Depending on your age, skin quality, facial anatomy and the desired rejuvenation effect the scars are either placed within upper limit of your brow hair (direct excision brow lift) or behind your hairline in the temples (temporal / endoscopic brow lift). The scars are normally hardly visible after 3 months.
How is the operation performed ?
This kind of procedure is mostly performed under deep iv sedation (Twilight sleep) combined with loco-regional anesthesia. You will sleep throughout the procedure, but you will be able to move arms and legs like in normal sleep which lowers the risk for thrombosis. The procedure is generally pain free and takes around 1 hour.
How long is the recovery ?
Recovery is 7-10 days, with some swelling and bruising during the first 3 days. Stitches maybe removed by day 7-10 and swelling and bruising have mostly subsided after 7 days. Makeup can be worn after a week. There may be some numbness of the skin and hardness of the subcutaneous skin layers during the first 6-8 weeks before recovery is complete.
After Surgery and Beyond
Aftercare
The Ocean Clinic Concept is to avoid any unnecessary pain and discomfort. Most of our facial fat transfer procedures are performed under local anesthesia with intravenous sedation. This concept allows for a complete pain–free procedure with our patients being sedated only for their comfort. Postoperative pain in Facial surgery is rare, most of our patients only have a slight tenderness for 24h- 48 h treated with oral pain medication.
Patients generally can go home on the same day and come for a check-up after 2-3 days. During the first 4 weeks postoperative our patients will be referred to our unique physiotherapeutic aftercare for quicker recovery and less swelling. Do not lift any objects beyond 5kg and avoid sports involving weights during 14 days.
Procedure related risks
Browlift surgery has very few complications if carried out by an experienced surgeon in a accredited facility. Rare complications include postoperative bleeding requiring revision, unsatisfactory scar healing requiring scar correction at a later date and prolonged recovery due to swelling and / or hematoma.
Permanent lesions to the facial nerve leading to facial asymmetries are extremely rare after brow lift procedures. Changes of sensibility of the skin are expected during the early postoperative period and disappear with time.
How long does a brow lift last ?
Most patients have a very satisfying result for 8-10 years or more, and follow-up studies with a facelift patient and her non-operated twin sister over 25 years showed that even after that time the facelift patient looked younger than her non operated sister. However, facial ageing continuous after any procedure, therefore many of our patients choose to have touch-up procedure or alternative treatments after 10 years.
Alternative treatments
Facial Fat grafting of the temple / brow area alone is a possible alternative technique if the laxity of skin and muscle is not too pronounced. 2 or more sessions may be necessary, as the body absorbs a certain amount of transplanted fat. It may be an option if you wish a shorter procedure without incisions, but the results are less dramatic than with brow lift.
A Blepharoplasty may be an alternative is the lateral brow sagging is not to pronounced, very often blepharoplasty and brow lifting are combined in one procedure.
A deep dermal skin resurfacing with a Phenol Peel can be a valid treatment alternative for skin with very pronounced Elastosis and Photo-Ageing. This method has dramatic results with pan-facial rejuvenation, but recovery is longer than with the surgical Facelift and results and suitability are skin-type dependent.
Our experience
Our surgeons performed more than 200 Brow lift procedures within the last 10 years. Our clinic is a worldwide leader in combining Facelift techniques with Facial fat grafting for re-volumizing of the ageing face and skin resurfacing with Peels to address the skin texture and imperfections like age spots and discolorations in one single treatment session. Many of these techniques have been published in international peer-reviewed journals and are on the forefront of new field of 3-dimensional facial rejuvenation.
