Aging Brows & Brow Position
Video transcript: Brow lift surgery is a frequently requested facial plastic surgery procedure. As we age often the brows do tend to descend, and in additional to changing the brow position they can also cause crowding of the skin in the upper eyelid. There are various techniques for improving the shape of the brow, but what's most important is trying to achieve an ideal shape for the brow. Now this is different in men than in women.
In women it's ideal to have the eyebrow peak lateral to the mid portion of the eye. So in some cases, if we can get the brow to peak closer to the corner of the eye or the lateral canthus, that's a little bit more ideal. So in women who's eyebrows are horizontal all the way across the eye, or if they descend even further than that, often brow lift can be very helpful. In men, generally speaking the eyebrows should be relatively low and relatively straight.
Here's an example of a patient who did require a brow lift. Which you'll notice is, in addition to the brow position being relatively low, it's also causing crowding of skin onto the upper eyelid that is actually making it difficult for her to actually see the eyelids properly. Elevation of the brow puts the brow in a more ideal position and also elevates the skin away from the upper eyelid.
This is another example of a patient who actually came to see me because she was having trouble with her vision. She had so much of the extra brow skin and upper eyelid skin being pushed down by a low riding eyebrow, that it was making it difficult for her to see in her lateral visual fields. Straight forward elevation of her eyebrow was all that was done that not only elevated the brow, but also take the extra tissue and move it up to once it once been. So in her case, she can see much better and you'll notice she can actually see most of her eyelid now. And I have not performed any surgery on the eyelid itself, but just moved her eyebrow to a more ideal position.