The Gliding Brow Lift: The Nearly Scarless Way to Rejuvenate Your Forehead
The gliding brow lift offers subtle, natural rejuvenation with minimal incisions and a quick recovery. A specialized temporary external quilting suture helps ensure a smooth lift and refined healing.
Conveniently located in Southwestern PA, south of Pittsburgh, and easily accessible from central PA, West Virginia, and eastern Ohio
What is a gliding brow lift?
A gliding brow lift reduces droopy brows and horizontal lines above the brow with a nearly scarless result. A gliding brow lift is a surgical procedure that:
- Elevates a drooping brow
- Restores the natural position and arch of the eyebrow
- Tightens the forehead skin and softens wrinkles
- Can reduce the appearance of crow’s feet
- Can be tailored to lift just the tail, the mid, or the entire brow
Other procedures that might be performed in conjunction with a gliding brow lift are upper and lower eyelid surgery (blepharoplasty), rhytidectomy (facelift) and fat transfer to the face.
What makes an ideal candidate for the procedure?
If you’re struggling with looking tired, have droopy brows or deep horizontal lines above the brow, you may be a candidate for a gliding browlift. Ideal candidates for a brow lift procedure are typically 40 years of age or older, when the brow line begins to sag. The ideal candidate will be in good physical and mental health, have realistic expectations for the procedure, and be a non-smoker.
What a gliding brow lift cannot do
A traditional brow lift may be a better option, if
- You have thick or heavy brow tissue
- You wish to lower your high hairline
What happens during the procedure? How is it performed?
While the patient is under local anesthesia with sedation, the doctor makes 4 small incisions at the hairline. A rounded solid cannula is inserted right under the skin, and with a gentle side-to-side and forward and backward motion, the skin is separated from the underlying muscle. The brows can be “glided” higher and, if desired, arched to change the shape. The brow and forehead skin is then fixed into place with about a 20% overcorrection (to accommodate inevitable relaxing). A suture is woven through the skin and muscle sandwich and gently compressed along multiple areas forming a hemostatic net. The body forms an adhesion between the muscle and skin, and this allows for the lift to stay.
How long is the recovery period?
With the sutures (hemostatic net) coming out in 4 days, the recovery process is mostly about waiting for bruising to subside, usually two to three weeks. Additionally, there is typically a small roll of bunched-up skin right at the hairline that needs to shrink down. The overcorrection settles in about 6 weeks.
The entire forehead may feel numb for about six to eight weeks, and there is often itching which resolves too. Transient hair loss near the incisions is not uncommon and almost always recovers. Some patients may find rare areas developing hyperpigmentation, which can be addressed with brightening/skin bleaching products.
What sort of scarring is expected after the procedure?
The hemostatic net or quilting suture can occasionally leave a temporary dot where it entered or exited the skin. Usually this is of no consequence and goes away. However, patients who do have darker or olive skin and tend to hyper-pigment may need to use a bleaching agent in the early postoperative period should there be some brown marks that persist. The incisions are so small that any visible scar from the brow lift that is not related to the hemostatic net is extremely rare.
What Happens After the Neck Lift Surgery Procedure
Patients wear a compression garment continuously for the first week to support healing and minimize swelling. After that, the garment is worn at night for another 10 days. We’ll also remove sutures about 7 to 10 days after the procedure.
Bruising is common in the first days after surgery, and the lower part of the face may feel numb, swollen, or “puffy.” These sensations are temporary and gradually improve as the tissues heal.
Dr. Pautler will provide aftercare instructions and follow each patient throughout recovery to ensure the best possible outcome.
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