Forehead lift

The dynamic ones — the bands that appear when you raise your brows — soften a great deal, because the muscle making them has been weakened. Lines etched deep enough to be visible at rest usually improve rather than vanish; the crease is in the skin by then as well as the muscle. Skin resurfacing afterwards is what closes that last gap, if you want it closed.

Often, yes, and this is the combination it is built for: a low or heavy brow that leaves the eyes looking smaller or tired even when you feel fine, noticeable brow asymmetry, deep forehead wrinkles and glabellar "11" lines that arrived alongside brow descent (brow ptosis), or upper-face changes after significant weight loss. Releasing the forehead is what allows the brow to sit higher, so treating the two together is not two operations stacked on each other. If brow position is genuinely the only issue and the forehead above it is calm, our brow lift page describes the narrower version of this. And the open, "snatched" look people ask for comes from moving the brow, not from removing eyelid skin — where the excess sits on the lid itself, the hooding answer below is the one to read.

Not the way it does after injections. The frown muscles are weakened surgically rather than temporarily relaxed, so the effect does not wear off on a three-month cycle. Muscle can recover partially over years, and some people return to a small maintenance dose eventually, but most do not.

It can, with the classic coronal approach, which moves the hairline back a little as it lifts. If your forehead is already high we plan the incision at the hairline instead of behind it, which keeps the height where it is and can even shorten it slightly. Say early if this worries you — it changes which technique we choose.

Numbness behind the incision is normal and near-universal at first, because the nerves to the scalp cross the surgical field. Most of it resolves over three to six months as they recover. A small patch of reduced sensation can persist, which people notice when brushing their hair more than at any other time.

It depends on whether the line is still being made or already made. Botox relaxes the muscle, so it answers creases that appear when you move and vanish when you stop, and it has to be repeated every three to four months. Surgery is the answer once the lines sit there at rest, or once the forehead itself has descended, because by then the problem is position and set-in skin rather than movement. A photograph of your forehead completely still usually settles which of the two you are.

Less of it, and often none in the frown. Some people keep a light dose in the horizontal lines to hold the result, and that is maintenance rather than a sign the surgery underdelivered. We would rather set that expectation now than at your six-week check.

Endoscopic and temporal incisions sit well inside the hair and are genuinely hard to find once healed. The coronal incision is longer and runs across the top of the scalp, hidden by hair but real. A hairline incision trades a slightly more visible line for a forehead that stays the length it is — a fair trade for some people, not for others.

Keep the wound dry and follow the dressing instructions exactly for the first fortnight — most poor scars are made in those weeks rather than in theatre. No nicotine while it heals, since it narrows the vessels feeding the wound edge. Once the surgeon clears it, silicone gel and keeping the line out of direct sun help it fade through the year it takes to settle.

Not sharply, for most people. The operation is done under general anaesthesia, so the real question is the days after — and what patients describe is pressure rather than pain: a tight, heavy forehead and a headache that plain painkillers answer. It is at its worst over the first two to three days, alongside the swelling and the bruising, then eases week by week; sleeping propped up helps more than people expect. What lasts longer is not pain but strangeness — the scalp behind the incision goes numb and itchy at the same time while the nerves recover, which is odd rather than sore.

Seven to fourteen days for most people, depending on how visible your job is and how fast your bruising clears. Desk work from home is often possible sooner if you do not mind the swelling.

Yes, with planning. We build the stay around clip or suture removal and at least one in-clinic follow-up, so keep about 7 days in Istanbul. Talk to the surgeon before you travel, not after you have booked.

Yes, and it is common. A facelift works on the lower face and neck, so pairing it with a forehead lift treats the whole face under one anaesthetic and one recovery. If sagging brows have pushed skin down onto your upper lids, eyelid surgery is often the right companion — the forehead lift restores the brow's position, and the blepharoplasty removes whatever excess remains on the lid itself. Whether combining makes sense depends on your health and the total operative time, which is a consultation decision.

When the brow already sits where it should and the lines are mild enough for injections to hold them. When smoking, or a condition that is not yet under control, puts the healing risk above what the surgery would gain. And when the weight is coming from the eyelid rather than the forehead — which is common enough to be worth its own answer below.

It depends on where the hooding comes from. When sagging brows are pressing skin down over the lids, lifting the forehead repositions the brow and much of the hooding goes with it. When the excess is in the eyelid skin itself, eyelid surgery is what removes it — sometimes instead of a forehead lift, sometimes alongside one. The surgeon assesses both layers at consultation, because treating the wrong one leaves the problem in place.

Results are long-lasting but not permanent. The surgery resets the forehead; normal aging then carries on from that new starting point. Most people enjoy the result for many years — the weakened muscles can partially recover over time, and skin keeps loosening with age. A repeat lift is possible years later if it does, though many patients never need one.

A mini forehead lift — often sold as a mini brow lift — is the limited version of this surgery: small incisions at the temples instead of a full endoscopic or coronal approach. It reaches only the outer forehead and the tail of the brow, so it suits people whose creasing sits at the outer corners while the central bands and frown lines are still mild. On this page it is the temporal lift described in the techniques above — a shorter operation with a quicker recovery, at the price of leaving the centre of the forehead untouched.

Four things, mostly. The technique — endoscopic at one end, hairline, coronal or mid-forehead at the other. Whether you combine it with upper eyelid surgery, which is common enough to be worth asking about before you settle on a budget. The anaesthesia plan and how long the operation runs. And your own anatomy and how much release the forehead needs, which is the honest catch-all. The package covers the surgeon's fee, anaesthesia, the inpatient stay, pre-op tests, transfers, a translator and a few hotel nights, and the figure is confirmed before you travel rather than after.