Endoscopic Forehead Lift - What to
Expect After Surgery
- There is typically minimal discomfort after an endoscopic forehead lift.
- There is usually some swelling around the eyes, and bruising of the eyelids, caused by blood that has tracked down due to gravity.
- There is usually numbness of the portions of the scalp behind the incisions. The sensation gradually returns. Scalp sutures come out easily in about 10-14 days (same time as the facelift sutures). The little fasteners dissolve in a few months. They are tiny and difficult to feel even before they dissolve.
- There may be some puckering of the scalp (dog ears) that settles down within a few weeks. Occasionally, there may be weakness of the forehead on one side due to stretching of the frontal branch of the facial nerve. This weakness is typically of a temporary nature. It is unusual after a forehead lift alone. It is more common when the forehead lift is done at the same time as a facelift.
- Hair follicles located at the incisions take several months to grow hair again, so there are typically small areas of hair loss at these small incision sites, behind the frontal hairline. There is minimal or no upward movement of the hairline, which is an advantage of the "open" forehead lift technique over the older coronal procedure.
- The endoscopic technique is less likely to cause an "overly surprised" expression that can result if there is excessive elevation of the eyebrows.
