What is the difference between an eyelid lift and a brow lift?

An eyelid lift or blepharoplasty removes excess, stretched out skin in the upper and lower eyelids.  At the same time as the excess skin is removed, bulging tissues beneath the skin can be rearranged so that they appear smooth beneath the skin.

A brow lift addresses drooping eyebrows.  Often, injection of muscle denervating agents such as Botox® can accomplish a similar thing without the need for surgery and can look more natural when the eyebrows do not droop significantly.  I tend to reserve surgical brow lifts for the most severe cases of eyebrow droop or descent.

A brow lift can have an influence on the appearance of the upper eyelids, since elevated eyebrows “use up” more of the excess skin that may be present in the upper eyelids.  On the other hand, removing excess skin in the upper eyelids can actually result in lowering of the eyebrows, if someone were artificially elevating their eyebrows to “pull up” the excess skin in the upper eyelids, which can sometimes cause a “heavy” feeling.