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Is a brow lift included with a complete facelift?

Donna P, Newport Beach, CA

I frequently get asked this question. A “complete facelift” is not a medical term and has no meaning to a surgeon. Every single human being has a sag of the muscles of the cheek and neck as they age, some sooner than others, some worse than others, but everyone experiences this sag. In youth, people have a V shaped face but as a face sags, more fullness develops in the jowl area, giving the face a pear shaped or A-shaped face. The term facelift implies lifting the cheek skin and suturing the sagging muscle to where they were in youth, restoring the A-shaped face to a V-shaped face. Not everyone gets upper eyelid skin excess, lower lid bags, brow ptosis or a weak chin.

During a facelift, if these conditions do exist, they get addressed by adding an upper eyelid blepharoplasty, a lower eyelid blepharoplasty, a brow lift or a chin augmentation to the facelift. In other words, if a patient has a droopy neck and droopy eyebrows but has no problem with the eyelids or chin, we would call the procedure a facelift with a brow lift.

The best way to illustrate this is with some examples of Dr. Bunkis’ patients.

This 50 year old female had brow ptosis, lower lid bags and an A-shaped face due to sagging of muscles of the cheeks and neck. Note in the after brow lift, lower lid blepharoplasty and Dr. Bunkis’ A to V Natural Facelift procedure that her face was restored to a youthful V-shape. The photographs on the right show the patient in her 20’s (high brows, no lower lid bags, V-shaped face) and in her sixties, more than 10 years after her lift – a similar facial shape to her mid 20’s (Actual patient of Dr. Bunkis, your results may vary).

This 47 year old female with brow ptosis (eyelashes touching her brows) and facial laxity/neck bands but without upper eyelid skin excess or lower lid bags, is shown before and a year after Dr. Bunkis’ A to V Natural Facelift procedure and endoscopic brow lift, which restored her face to a youthful V-shape and put her brows where they were in youth. The photographs on the right show the patient at 23 years of age and in her late 50’s, more than ten years after her facelift.

Note that her eyebrows were not lifted as high as with the previous patient because this patient’s eyebrows were never that high – her brow lift restored her brow position to where her brows were in youth. Her facial shape, now and in her youth, is also very similar. (Actual patient of Dr. Bunkis, your results may vary).

Please send any questions you would like to see answered in a future blog to bunkis@ocps.com.

Feel free to contact Dr. Bunkis in Newport Beach CA at 949-997-0796 to schedule a consultation or visit www.orangecountyplasticsurgery.com for more information.

We have instituted a telemedicine consultation service online through https://doxy.me/drbunkis – just please call us in advance to set up a time when we can chat. (Just click on this link to use doxy.me after you call to alert me, and your name will pop up on my screen that you are waiting to talk to me). Save this link in your favorites or contacts. This service can be used for follow-up patients as well as new consultations.

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