Blepharoplasty known as eyelid surgery is a surgical procedure to remove fat usually along with excess skin and muscle from the upper and lower eyelids.
Eyelid surgery can correct drooping upper lids and puffy bags below your eyes, features that make you look older and more tired than you feel, and may even interfere with your vision.
Aging around the eyes is associated with the formation of excess skin folds and eyebags. The loss of skin elasticity affects mainly the upper eyelids. With aging the brow moves downwards so that the eyebrows come to lie below the bony brow ridge. This exaggerates the effect of the excess skin of the eyelid itself.
The aim of this surgery is to reduce the excess skin and flatten the eye-bags.
Eyelid surgery can be done alone, or combined with other facial surgery procedures such as a facelift or browlift.
THE BEST CANDIDATES FOR AN EYELID SURGERY
This surgery can improve your appearance and your self-confidence, but it won’t necessarily change your looks to match your ideal, or cause other people to treat you differently. Before you decide to have surgery, think carefully about your expectations and discuss them with your surgeon.
A part of aging, eyelid surgery is recommended to those who notice that the fold of excess skin of the eyelid start giving vision problems.
RISKS AND COMPLICATIONS
Swelling and bruising: Swelling and bruising around the eyes is inevitable. The bruising usually subsides within 10 days. Minor swelling may persist for a few weeks afterwards.
- Watery eyes: This can occur for a few days post-operation and generally subsides spontaneously.
- Dark skin: Preoperative pigmentation of the lower eyelid skin will not be improved following this procedure.
- Bleeding: Occasionally a small collection of blood may accumulate under the skin and may need to be evacuated by aspiration using a needle.
- Infection: This can occur in the outer coating of the eye (conjunctivitis), the incision lines (wound infection). These infections will require appropriate treatment.
- Blurred vision: Blurred vision or double blurred vision can occur but last for no more than a few days.
PLANNING YOUR SURGERY
The initial consultation with your surgeon is very important. The surgeon will need your complete medical history, so check your own records ahead of time and be ready to provide this information. Be sure to inform your surgeon if you have any allergies; if you’re taking any vitamins, medications (prescription or over-the-counter), or other drugs; and if you smoke.
You should provide any relevant information from your ophthalmologist or the record of your most recent eye exam. If you wear glasses or contact lenses, be sure to bring them along.
You and your surgeon should carefully discuss your goals and expectations for this surgery. You’ll need to discuss whether to do all four eyelids or just the upper or lower ones, whether skin as well as fat will be removed, and whether any additional procedures are appropriate.
Your surgeon will explain the surgical technique and anesthesia that will be use, the type of facility where the surgery will be performed, and the risks and costs involved.
Don’t hesitate to ask your doctor any questions you may have, especially those regarding your expectations and concerns about the results.
PREPARING FOR YOUR SURGERY
Your surgeon will give you specific instructions on how to prepare for surgery, including guidelines on eating and drinking, smoking, and taking or avoiding certain vitamins and medications. Carefully following these instructions will help your surgery go more smoothly.
While you’re making preparations, be sure to arrange for someone to drive you home after your surgery, and to help you out for a few days if needed.
WHERE YOUR SURGERY WILL BE PERFORMED
Eyelid surgery may be performed as an outpatient in a private hospital. It’s usually done on an outpatient basis; rarely does it require an overnight stay in hospital.
TYPES OF ANESTHESIA
Eyelid surgery is usually performed under local anesthesia under sedation–which numbs the area around your eyes–along with oral or intravenous sedatives. You’ll be awake during the surgery, but relaxed and insensitive to pain.
THE SURGERY
Eyelid surgery usually takes one to two hours, depending if you are having all four eyelids done.
In a typical procedure, the surgeon makes incisions following the natural lines of your eyelids; in the creases of your upper lids, and just below the lashes in the lower lids.
The incisions may extend into the crow’s feet or laugh lines at the outer corners of your eyes. Working through these incisions, the surgeon separates the skin from underlying fatty tissue and muscle, removes excess fat, and often trims sagging skin and muscle. The incisions are then closed with very fine sutures.
If you have a pocket of fat beneath your lower eyelids but don’t need to have any skin removed, your surgeon may perform a transconjunctival blepharoplasty. In this procedure the incision is made inside your lower eyelid, leaving no visible scar. It is usually performed on younger patients with thicker, more elastic skin.
AFTER YOUR SURGERY
After surgery, the surgeon will apply a bandage. Your eyelids may feel tight and sore as the anesthesia wears off, but you can control any discomfort with the pain medication prescribed by your surgeon.
Your surgeon will instruct you to keep your head elevated for several days, and to use cold compresses to reduce swelling and bruising. (Bruising varies from person to person: it reaches its peak during the first week, and generally lasts anywhere from two weeks to a month.) Your surgeon will follow your progress very closely for the first week or two. The stitches will be removed two days to a week after surgery. Once they’re out, the swelling and discoloration around your eyes will gradually subside, and you’ll start to look and feel much better.
GETTING BACK TO NORMAL
You should be able to read or watch television after two or three days. However, you won’t be able to wear contact lenses for about two weeks, and even then they may feel uncomfortable for a while.
Most people feel ready to go out in public (and back to work) in a week to 8 days. By then, depending on your rate of healing and your doctor’s instructions, you’ll probably be able to wear makeup to hide the bruising that remains. You may be sensitive to sunlight, wind, and other irritants for several weeks, so you should wear sunglasses and a special sunblock made for eyelids when you go out.
Your surgeon will probably tell you to keep your activities to a minimum for three to five days, and to avoid more strenuous activities for about three weeks. It’s especially important to avoid activities that raise your blood pressure, including bending, lifting, and rigorous sports. You may also be told to avoid alcohol, since it causes fluid retention.
YOUR NEW LOOK
Healing is a gradual process, scars may remain slightly pink for six months, then they’ll fade to a thin, nearly invisible white line.
On the other hand, the positive results of your eyelid surgery-the more alert and youthful look-will last for years. For many people, these results are permanent.
