I want a browlift and want to avoid surgery…what are my options?

Neurotoxins (Botox, Dysport, etc.) are a great option to achieve a bit of brow elevation without surgery. The key to understanding the answer to this question is understanding that there are different muscles around the eyebrows and eyelids that pull the brows in different directions.

The main forehead muscle, the frontalis, lifts the brows up. The main eyelid muscle, the orbicularis oculi, pulls the brows down. And in the middle of the brows, in a region we all the glabella, there are a group of muscles, the procerus and corrugators, that pulls the brows down and towards each other.

The key to a non-surgical, or chemical, brow lift is appropriate dosing and injection of neurotoxin into each of these areas. Think of it like a scale – if you want to raise the brows, you’ll need to dose one are a bit higher than the other.

The other important thing to note about neurotoxins is that they don’t last forever. While there are some differences in duration between the different brands, patients will generally start to notice the medication wearing off in 3-4 months. So just like getting your nails done or hair dyed, it requires regular maintenance to achieve an ongoing look.