Ptosis
The upper eyelid can itself hang low, a condition known as a ptosis. In the early stages this can make your eyes look sleepy, if the eyelid comes lower then it can cover your pupil and affect your visual field and even your vision. In most cases the cause is simply a stretching of where the levator muscle that lifts your upper lid inserts into the lid. It is important to exclude rare neurological and muscular problems. So long as these are excluded the treatment involves tightening up the levator muscle. There are two broad techniques based essentially on whether an upper lid blepharoplasty is also required.
Anterior Approach Ptosis Repair
The upper eyelid can itself hang low, a condition known as a ptosis. In the early stages this can make your eyes look sleepy, if the eyelid comes lower then it can cover your pupil and affect your visual field and even your vision. In most cases the cause is simply a stretching of where the levator muscle that lifts your upper lid inserts into the lid. It is important to exclude rare neurological and muscular problems. So long as these are excluded the treatment involves tightening up the levator muscle. There are two broad techniques based essentially on whether an upper lid blepharoplasty is also required.
Anterior Approach Ptosis Repair
Posterior Approach Ptosis Repair
Brow Lift
There are a number of techniques to lift a dropping brow. They include Botox, endoscopic brow lift, direct brow lift, trans-blepharoplasty brow lift, pre-trichial brow lift, and bi-coronal brow lift. The number of options reveals the dilemma, the balance between effect, scar, cost, numb head, and recovery.
The simplest technique is simply to switch off the muscles that pull the eyebrows downwards with botox. The resulting tone of the frontalis muscle that lifts the eyebrows upwards results in a subtle but effective brow lift. There is almost no risk, but the effect wears off and the botox needs to be repeated.
The endoscopic brow lift has been very popular, and is elegant, but needs to have botox given as well to stop the brow depressors simply pulling the brow back down again, is expensive, and ultimately doesn't generate much more lift than botox alone.
A trans-blepharoplasty brow lift has appeal, is also elegant as you are already making the incisions for the blepharoplasty, and is like an endoscopic lift in reverse, but again is expensive, the issue of how best to re-suspend the lifted periosteum has not been fully answered, and again the best result is with additional botox.
The direct brow lift is very effective but with an unacceptable scar in most circumstances.
Moving the scar to the hair line and limiting its extent with a pre-trichial brow lift can be effective, especially for hairstyles that involve a fringe. There is a risk of a numb head behind the scar.
The bi-coronal incision and lift is very effective, but gives a totally numb wooden feeling head behind the scar, a large scar that can be associated with hair loss, an elevated hair line and is expensive and generally less popular than other techniques.
One answer is prevention. Brow descent is a result of years of pulling the forehead down with your frown muscles. Use of botox will delay this descent.
Mole Removal
Many of us have small lesions on our face. Some are much loved beauty spots, but many are unloved lumps and bumps that can very easily be removed.
The surgery is usually with local anaesthetic, and is much less expensive than you may think. If the lesion is at all suspicious of skin cancer then an excision biopsy is recommended. This is covered by private insurance and also available on the NHS.
There is a small risk of infection, bruise and scarring. The scarring should however be less visible than the lump.
There are a number of techniques to lift a dropping brow. They include Botox, endoscopic brow lift, direct brow lift, trans-blepharoplasty brow lift, pre-trichial brow lift, and bi-coronal brow lift. The number of options reveals the dilemma, the balance between effect, scar, cost, numb head, and recovery.
The simplest technique is simply to switch off the muscles that pull the eyebrows downwards with botox. The resulting tone of the frontalis muscle that lifts the eyebrows upwards results in a subtle but effective brow lift. There is almost no risk, but the effect wears off and the botox needs to be repeated.
The endoscopic brow lift has been very popular, and is elegant, but needs to have botox given as well to stop the brow depressors simply pulling the brow back down again, is expensive, and ultimately doesn't generate much more lift than botox alone.
A trans-blepharoplasty brow lift has appeal, is also elegant as you are already making the incisions for the blepharoplasty, and is like an endoscopic lift in reverse, but again is expensive, the issue of how best to re-suspend the lifted periosteum has not been fully answered, and again the best result is with additional botox.
The direct brow lift is very effective but with an unacceptable scar in most circumstances.
Moving the scar to the hair line and limiting its extent with a pre-trichial brow lift can be effective, especially for hairstyles that involve a fringe. There is a risk of a numb head behind the scar.
The bi-coronal incision and lift is very effective, but gives a totally numb wooden feeling head behind the scar, a large scar that can be associated with hair loss, an elevated hair line and is expensive and generally less popular than other techniques.
One answer is prevention. Brow descent is a result of years of pulling the forehead down with your frown muscles. Use of botox will delay this descent.
Mole Removal
Many of us have small lesions on our face. Some are much loved beauty spots, but many are unloved lumps and bumps that can very easily be removed.
The surgery is usually with local anaesthetic, and is much less expensive than you may think. If the lesion is at all suspicious of skin cancer then an excision biopsy is recommended. This is covered by private insurance and also available on the NHS.
There is a small risk of infection, bruise and scarring. The scarring should however be less visible than the lump.