When you start seeing fine lines and wrinkles appear on your forehead and around your eyes, your appearance may not match the younger you on the inside. Several treatments can address these problems, but which one is right for you? Should you go with Botox®, or is a brow lift more appropriate?
Dr. Dustin Heringer of Arizona Ocular & Facial Plastic Surgery in Scottsdale and Peoria, Arizona, understands how difficult it can be to look in the mirror and see an aging face that doesn’t reflect who you feel you are. He uses Botox and other injectables when the lines and wrinkles first appear and aren’t etched into your face like stone.
As aging progresses and the forehead, eyebrows, and eyelids begin to droop and sag, the injectables are no longer effective, so he moves to brow lift surgery to rejuvenate the upper third of your face.
Botox (onabotulinumtoxinA), and its close cousins Dysport® and Xeomin®, is an injectable drug that uses botulinum toxin from the bacterium Clostridium botulinum. While it’s best known for causing food poisoning, it's completely safe in small and purified doses. The FDA approved its use for cosmetic treatments in April 2002, though it was initially restricted to use on glabellar lines (brow furrows) in adults 65 and younger.
Today, Botox is used cosmetically for any and all “dynamic wrinkles” caused by muscle contractions. Whenever you make a facial expression, your muscles contract, tugging at the skin above them. After a lifetime of smiling, frowning, squinting, and grimacing, the skin can no longer bounce back as well, causing wrinkles to develop.
Botox, though, prevents nerves from signaling the muscles to contract, and if the muscles can’t contract, they can’t pull at your skin. Your face relaxes, and your lines and wrinkles disappear into the smoother skin.
The treatment has no downtime. Side effects are minimal and usually dissipate quickly. Results last 3-4 months, at which time you can schedule another treatment.
There comes a point where your facial lines become deep, and creases and folds start to develop. The skin on your forehead sags, and so do your brows and eyes, giving you a hooded or angry appearance. Botox can’t cover up this level of damage. The best treatment in this case is the brow lift.
Also commonly called a forehead lift, a brow lift rejuvenates the face above the eyes, restoring a more refreshed appearance that better reflects a patient’s nature. Dr. Heringer removes excess and sagging skin on the forehead, repositions the underlying muscles and tissue, and smooths the area surrounding your eyes. The brow lift can, therefore, eliminate a heavy, sagging brow, remove deep furrows, and restore a smoother, more youthful contour to the upper third of the face.
Brow lifts can be performed by themselves, or you can combine them with other treatments, such as a blepharoplasty (eyelid lift), to restore the entire upper portion of your face. No matter how you choose to proceed, Dr. Heringer takes an artistic approach that gives you natural-looking results and only minimal scarring.
No matter where you are on your aging journey, if you’re bothered by the signs of aging on your face, we have one or more treatments that can help. Contact Arizona Ocular & Facial Plastic Surgery by calling our nearest office.
