Posts Tagged ‘browlift’
Monday, September 12th, 2011
Have you ever looked in the mirror and seen that tired look and wondered why? If you are over forty, this might be a near daily occurrence. Fullness or extra skin of the upper eyelid is one of the most common causes of tired looking eyes. You may be wondering what’s the best way for me to remove this fullness and restore the youthful, attractive look to my eyes. Is it an eyelid lift (blepharoplasty), a browlift or some combination that is right for me?
Fullness and heaviness of the upper eyelids occurs for two reasons. The most common reason is too much skin and fat. Due to the constant stretching of opening and closing your eyes (the upper eyelid accounts for most of eyelid closing) extra skin is created over time. Eventually this can become so significant that it hangs down onto your eyelashes, known as hooding. The other contributing reason can be the position of the eyebrows. If the eyebrows have dropped down and are too low (gravity does usually win) this can also add fullness to the upper eyelids as it pushes the eyelid skin down.
To really know whether it is the eyelid skin, the eyebrows or a combination of both that is causing those full and tired looking upper eyelids, you must do an eyebrow placement test. By putting your eyebrows in the proper aesthetic position (by pulling up on the forehead skin until you have the desired eyebrow position) and then opening and closing your eyes, one can see the true amount of upper eyelid fullness remaining. By so doing, there are three possibilities for correction which will be revealed.
When the eyebrows are lifted to a better position, all the upper eyelid fullness is gone. This means the fullness is due to low eyebrows and the solution is some form of a Brow Lift. In this situation if only an eyelid lift was done, it would actually cause your eyebrows to become lower.
When the eyebrows are lifted, some but not all of the upper eyelid fullness gone. This means a combined browlift and eyelid lifts are ideally needed. It would also be perfectly appropriate to just do an eyelid lift and accept the lower eyebrow position. For men this is usually more common than in women as most men have naturally lower eyebrows.
If the eyebrow is already in a good position on the lower end of the forehead and all of the eyelid fullness remains, than only eyelid lifts are needed. This is , by far, the most common tired eye scenario particularly if one is under the age of 55 or so.
Plastic surgery correction of aging of the upper eyelids must consider its upstairs eyebrow neighbor to determine the best solution to a less tired and rejuvenated look.
Dr. Barry Eppley
Indianapolis, Indiana
Tags: blepharoplasty, browlift, dr barry eppley, indianapolis
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Saturday, July 16th, 2011
Q: Dr. Eppley, I have a question regarding browlift surgery. I have a low hairline which is only about 2 inches from my eyebrows to my hairline. Would a browlift/forehead lift increase my forehead length and can this be done without moving my eyebrows higher. I am young but I have a lot of laxity in my forehead. Thanks!!
A: The simple answer is…no. You can’t lift/stretch the forehead skin upward without moving the eyebrows to any significant amount. Since the whole forehead skin must be loosened to get any movement, the eyebrows will naturally be raised although not to the degree that the skin is lifted since they are the furthest away from the location of the pull. You might get a half inch up to an inch if your forehead is really lax but no more. Browlifts, by definition, raise the eyebrows.
It is possible to really lengthen your forehead through tissue expansion but this is a two-step surgical process. This is where a tissue expander is initially placed under the forehead skin during the first procedure. This is gradually inflated by saline injections over four to six weeks to make the forehead skin ‘grow’. Once adequately expanded, the tissue expander is removed and the forehead lengthened with the extra skin created. This can increase the forehead skin length by several inches if desired.
Dr. Barry Eppley
Indianapolis, Indiana
Tags: browlift, dr barry eppley, forehead lengthening, indianapolis
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Sunday, February 27th, 2011
Q: For most of my life I have considered myself ugly. I avoid having pictures taken and I most certainly don’t look at them if they have to be taken. I have a total lack of confidence and this has definitely poses problems in my personal relationships. I don’t know what it is about my face but it just doesn’t look right. I am only 29 but I look much older. My eye area looks droopy and old and may face looks thin and distorted. I have attached some pictures for you to see and review. What would you recommend to help me look better ?
A: When someone doesn’t like their face, particularly at a young age, this indicates that the problems are with how it is put together (structural components) not that it is has early aging. This means the underlying structures that make up the shape and highlights of the face which are largely bone and cartilage. In reviewing your pictures, I can see that your face has unbalanced structures which include low hanging brows, a broad and prominent nose, hollow cheeks, and a wide and long chin. The combination of these features creates an overall facial look that you do not like. Procedures such as an endoscopic browlift, rhinoplasty, cheek implants and chin reduction collectively would make a major change in how your face looks. It would lend a softer and more youthful due to a better balance of your facial features. Computer imaging with these changes would demonstrate their potential benefit in changing the shape of your face.
Dr. Barry Eppley
Indianapolis, Indiana
Tags: browlift, cheek implants, chin reduction, dr barry eppley, facial shape change, indianapolis, plastic surgery of the chin, rhinoplasty
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Monday, January 31st, 2011
Q: I am 30 yrs old and am tried of people telling me that I am in my mid to late 40s. Ugghhh! I usually just walk away and cry and I am tried of crying over this and want to get something done about it. I have had a brow lift and a neck liposuction about 2 yrs ago. I would like to see what it would look like with eyelid lift and filler. Would you also recommend something else? Maybe a chemical peel? Thank you for your help! I really appreciate it!
A: Thank you for sending your pictures. Unfortunately computer imaging is good at changing structures of the face but not very good at soft tissue manipulations such as those that you have asked for. An eye lift can not be done as it distorts the whole eyelid. However, I think there is no question you have upper eyelid hooding and you would clearly benefit by an upper blepharoplasty or eyelid lift. Putting in fillers along the nasolabial fold and lips is also not very accurate and often just distorts the lips in trying to image it. You have reasonable lip size so injectable fillers will make them nicely bigger. As you have suggested, a chemical peel is good for skin texture and brightening the glow of the skin and for fine wrinkles as well.
As for other recommendations, I have done some other changes just to look at how to soften your facial features and make your face more ‘youthful’. These have included the following:revisional browlift to lower hairline (reduce long forehead) and correct existing brow asymmetry, rhinoplasty to make nose look slimmer and more narrow and chin reduction to soften chin point and make softer looking.These are structural facial changes which are different than just anti-aging procedures.
Dr. Barry Eppley
Indianapolis, Indiana
Tags: browlift, chin reduction, dr barry eppley, indianapolis, plastic surgery of the face, rhinoplasty
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Sunday, January 30th, 2011
Q: For my bulgy forehead, is it possible to burr down the forehead and then do a forehead/eyebrow lift at the same time, just removing the extra skin? The reason I ask is because my head is misshappen and my hairline is too high. I want my hairline to be lower so burring down some of the forehead and then making and eyebrow lift would help alot. After that is done I was going to get a hair transplant on my hairline to cover up the scar. Does this sound like it will work? Will it work if I get a hair transplant over the scar and can I do the eyebrow/forehead lift thing?
A: Your approach to a forehead or frontal contouring is conceptually correct. While I don’t know exactly where your exact hairline is now or what its shape is, making a scalp or coronal incision there allows one to access the forehead area. Probably about 5mms across the forehead bulge can be taken down. A browlift can then be performed and the redundant skin removed at the scalp incision line. This will shorten the perceived length or height of the forehead skin. Thereafter, no more than 3 to 6 months later, a hair transplant can then be done to put a camouflage to the scar. Such a scar in the scalp can often heal remarkably well due to the uniqueness of hair-bearing (or past hair-bearing) scalp skin.
Dr. Barry Eppley
Indianapolis, Indiana
Tags: browlift, dr barry eppley, forehead reduction, indianapolis, plastic surgery of the forehead, scalp scar
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Sunday, January 2nd, 2011
Q: Dr. Eppley, My droopy eyelids are driving me crazy. While I have always had very fleshy and heavy eyelids, they have gotten worse as I age. After my 40s (I am 55 now), they began to sag badly. Putting on makeup has become very difficult. What’s even worse is that it is making my forehead wrinkle. My eyelids are heavy and they seem to be in the way of me seeing. Without realizing it, I tense my forehead muscles to lift my brows up. This lifts up some of the eyelid skin and makes me see better. All of this forehead muscle tensing has given me permanent creases in my forehead. Should I just have my eyelids done or both my eyelids and my forehead?
A: Droopy and heavy eyelids, besides interfering with you seeing, can make you look sad and tired. Blepharoplasty (eyelid lift or tuck) can open them up dramatically and give you a fresher and more alert appearance. (some call it a youthful change) That is certainly what you would benefit from as you have realized.
A browlift is a good complementary procedure to blepharoplasties if your brows have dropped with age. Lifting one’s brows up can signify that it is either a reaction to drooping eyelid skin or that the brows are too low as well. That is an important distinction to make. I suspect that it is more of a reaction to your eyelid skin issue. Therefore a browlift is not what you really need. More likely you would benefit from Botox injections to ‘detrain’ your forehead muscles from the muscular responses they have now learned to do.
Dr. Barry Eppley
Indianapolis Indiana
Tags: blepharoplasty, browlift, dr barry eppley, indianapolis, plastic surgery of the face
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Friday, December 10th, 2010
Q: I have noticed that some fat has developed above the very top of the nose between my eyes. I have attached a picture of it. It seems to be getting thicker and heavier as I age. Is it possible that I am growing fat between my eyes? I have never heard of such a thing. Is there nyway of getting rid of this?
A: The ‘fat’ to which you refer between your eyebrows is not really fat. It is thick heavy skin and muscle, which over time and with age and continuing facial expression, has fallen downward into the glabella (area between the eyebrows). This creates a bunching of tissue and skin folds which looks like fat to you but is just sagging tissues from age and gravity. Its correction would require some form of a browlift to both thin out the overactive muscle in this area and to lift the sagging brows and forehead tissue which is pushing it downward.
Dr. Barry Eppley
Indianapolis Indiana
Tags: browlift, dr barry eppley, indianapolis, plastic surgery
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Sunday, April 4th, 2010
The eyes may be the window to the soul, but they also create a strong impression of how we look. So many people comment to and about others based on how their eyes look. We all have had the experience of someone asking us if we are tired or have been up late. You can be certain their question is not probably based on how we were dressed or what we were eating.
But it is not the eyes per se that give these impressions, it is what is around them. The drapes of the eyes, the lids or window shades, are largely responsible for their appearance. Too much skin, deepening wrinkles, and bulging fat creates a tired and aging appearance. When combined with falling eyebrows, the amount of eye we see gets smaller and one really does look older. All this excess lid tissue is also prone to collect and retain fluid, hence those swollen eyes in the morning.
Because of the impact of how our eye area looks, eyelid surgery (blepharoplasty) is the best value in all of facial rejuvenation surgery. This is certainly true based on the size of the treated surface area. But more importantly, changing the look of the eyes does exactly what one is after…to look more refreshed. Few want to look different, but all want to look like themselves, only better.
While there are some non-surgical treatments that can make some areas around the eyes look better, none of them can improve the way the eyelids look. Botox can decrease wrinkling between the eyebrows and around the sides of the eyes, and that can be a great benefit for sure, but that affects expression only. If you look in the mirror without your face smiling or moving and your eyes still look tired, eyelid surgery is the only option.
By the way, forget about some magical cream making your eyelids look better. Amongst the many hundreds that exist, a few can make some minor reduction in fine wrinkles and puffiness. But really visible differences require removal of what makes them look that way, too much skin and fat.
While blepharoplasty surgery works on the lid skin, there are differences between what is done on the upper versus the lowers. The upper eyelids are largely about skin removal and re-creating an upper eyelid crease. Having a well defined eyelid crease is more important than trying to remove all excess skin. In the lower eyelid, more focus is on fat removal and skin tightening and making it as smooth as possible. There is no lower eyelid crease that needs to be made.
Many potential patients fear that blepharoplasty surgery will make them look unnatural. While this is possible if too much skin is removed from the eyelids, most overdone results come from browlifting not blepharoplasty. While browlifting can be a valuable addition to eyelid tucks, it is a procedure that is easily overdone. High eyebrows can easily change the appearance of the eye area and not favorably. Consider browlifting very carefully. It is not a cavalier addition to eyelid surgery.
If you are tired of looking tired, blepharoplasty may be a good choice to get a more youthful look back.
Dr. Barry Eppley
Tags: blepharoplasty, browlift, dr barry eppley, eyelid surgery, eyelid tucks, indianapolis, plastic surgery
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Tuesday, February 9th, 2010
One of the first signs of aging is what happens around one’s eyes. We are so expressive with our eyes and forehead that they bear the brunt of much of the early and visible signs of the aging process. How many times has someone said to you…are you tired?…have you been working late?…when in fact you just had eight hours of sleep. The development of extra eyelid skin, lower eye bags, and wrinkles around the eyes can be telling.
This makes the blepharoplasty (eyelid tucks) a vital plastic surgery procedure in making one look more refreshed. Many patients fear, however, that such an eyelid procedure will change their appearance rather than just making it more youthful or rejuvenated. This fear is promoted by just looking at today’s over-operated celebrities who have had too much surgery, or overly aggressive surgery, and look very unnatural. Such changes do make one look different, but not better.
Modern blepharoplasty surgery avoid these problems using a more conservative approach based on a better understanding of how the eyelid and face changes with age. Greater emphasis is placed on not disturbing the eyelid’s complex system of support and removing just the right amount of extra skin. This leads to a more natural looking result that does not alter one’s appearance.Baggy upper and puffy lower lids can now be treated with less tissue disruption and scarring for a safer and more natural long-term result. The goal is to look like yourself…just better!
When considering an upper eyelid procedure, the position of the eyebrow must be considered. A low hanging eyebrow can make it look like there is more skin in the upper eyelid than really exists. A browlift procedure is occasionally done with a blepharoplasty when it is determined that a higher brow is aesthetically beneficial. How do you know if your eyebrow is too low? That would depend on where one’s brow was when they were young. I would submit that most people do not remember where it was in their younger days. You simply have to play with it in the mirror to decide if higher is better.
Browlifts are primarily a procedure for women, they are rarely done in men. When browlifts are done, emphasis should be on more lateral brow elevation and less inner brow elevation. A woman’s eyebrow usually has an upward and outward sweep to it towards one’s temple area. Bringing up the inner part of the eye brow is what creates an unnatural overelevated look.
Today’s in-office ‘needle’ treatments can also provide some around the eye area improvement. Botox (and Dysport), not injectable fillers, is what is used. It is a great treatment for reducing the frowning look between the eyebrows, horizontal forehead lines, and crow’s feet wrinkles at the side of the eyes which can be particularly evident when one smiles. As an early treatment before significant eye aging changes occur or as a complement after blepharoplasty surgery, Botox is a simple and cost-effective non-surgical treatment.
One no longer has to be told that they look tired or are seeing their eyeball slowly disappear in a sea of loose and hanging eyelid skin. Between the three Bs (blepharoplasty, browlift and Botox), a more rested and refreshed you awaits!
Dr. Barry Eppley
Tags: blepharoplasty, botox, browlift, dr barry eppley, eyelid tuck, indianapolis, plastic surgery
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