FAQ:
Eyelid surgery or brow lift?
When someone
complains of the appearance of the upper eyelids, the first thing we do is
evaluate whether the problem is excess skin in the upper eyelids, or if the problem is that the eyebrows have lowered in
position over time. If the eyebrows are in good position, then we can perform
the upper eyelid surgery (also called a blepharoplasty) to remove the
excess skin. If the eyebrows are particularly low, however, it might
not be wise to excise skin from the upper eyelids, and in that case a brow
lift is the better idea. If
you look in the mirror and with your fingers raise your eyebrows sky high,
you'll see that all of the excess skin in your upper eyelids appears to
disappear when the brows are elevated. If the brows are low, raising them can take
care of much of the problem of excess skin in the upper lids. A
couple of examples will help here. In the person pictured below, the
before picture shows lots of excess skin in the upper lids. She had
a brow lift, not an upper eyelid blepharoplasty. In the after picture, there seems to be very little
excess in the upper lids.
The
woman pictured below has eyebrows that are in excellent position, so the excess in
her upper lids can be addressed with just the upper eyelid surgery.
The
woman below has what seems to be lots of excess skin in her upper eyelids,
but her brows are so low that if we were to just work on her upper lids,
the result would be poor. If you can imagine only taking excess skin
out of her upper eyelids, you'd see that we would just about be sewing her
upper eyelashes to the bottom of her eyebrows. She had a brow lift
only.
Remember,
also, that the purpose of the brow lift or forehead lift is only to
elevate, vertically, the position of the eyebrows. It does not
tighten the forehead skin or remove forehead wrinkles.
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