Eyelid Blepharoplasty

If you are tired of the loose excess skin of the upper eyelids and fat bags of the lower eyelids making you look tired even when you are not, you are a great candidate for a blepharoplasty – eyelid surgery in New York.

The Eyelid Surgery:

Involves an incision with a laser, electrical knife or scalpel that is made through the inside of the lower eyelid (transconjuctival) allowing for a scarless recovery. Through this incision the lower eyelid fat is removed, debulked, or transposed depending on the patients needs. If there is a moderate amount of lower eyelid skin redundancy it could be “shrunk wrapped” or reduced via chemical peels or lasers. If the amount of skin redundancy is significant skin can be carefully removed by making an incision just below the eyelash margin horizontally.

Surgery and Recovery:

Either upper or lower eyelid surgery in New York is performed as an outpatient basis, under local anesthesia, with light sedation. Upper eyelids take about 45 minutes and lower eyelids also take about 45 minutes, an hour and half for all four eyelids. One can expect bruising and swelling for up to one week, with sutures removed ay 5-7 days after the surgery, allowing a return to work within a week.

Upper Eyelid Surgery:

Eyelid surgery in New York is fine detailed work and the true problem should be defined as appropriate to each individual patient. In many cases it is not just the eyelids that are drooping, but the brow is drooping, and putting weight on the eyelid structures giving the appearance of it being the eyelids, in this case the patient benefits from a browlift. There is also the issue of differentiating between excess eyelid skin and upper eyelid ptosis, which is drooping of the eyelid itself making the eye look smaller than the other eye. With regards to upper eyelid ptosis, the levator aponeurosis (the muscle that opens the eyelid) usually has slipped upward leaving the eyelid in a lowered position at rest. This involves a ptosis repair which is performed by disinserting the levator muscle and advancing it downward and reattaching it in lowered position.

Lower Eyelid Surgery:

Lower eyelids could be plagued with saggy excess skin, protruding fat, dark circles, or combination of them. Solely removing the fat is not the answer for many of the patients. The doctor must evaluate the bony structure of the mid-face, skin quality, and prominence of the eyeball. If there is poor mid-face support (sunken in, or flat bone) with a prominent eyeball then fat must not be taken away because of fear of looking skeletonized a few years after surgery or even worse the retracting or a pulling downward of the lower eyelid. These cases must be handled with care by repositioning the fat changing its contour so as not to look like bags, but rather a continuation with the cheek mound. If the eyes appear bulging the doctor must also evaluate the patient for disease processes such as thyroid disease or other orbital processes. Care must be taken with the lower eyelid skin, not removing too much to avoid a vertical shortening of the lower eyelids and not being able to close them.