FACE > Eyelid Surgery (Blepharoplasty)

 

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Eyelid surgery (technically called "blepharoplasty") is a 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. However, it won't remove "crow's feet" or other wrinkles, eliminate dark circles under your eyes, or lift sagging eyebrows. While it can add an upper eyelid crease to Asian eyes, it will not erase evidence of your ethnic or racial heritage.

Blepharoplasty usually takes one to three hours, depending on the extent of the surgery.

 

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.

 

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