How you feel has a lot to do with how you look. If your eyes look older than you are, you will probably feel older too. It’s normal to desire looking and feeling more youthful as you age.
A blepharoplasty – or eyelid surgery – may be the most effective way for you to achieve a fresh and rejuvenated look.
What is Blepharoplasty?
As you age, gravity will likely affect your skin and facial muscles. This may cause the thin layer of skin surrounding your eyes to loosen and sag, making you look tired and beyond your years.
A blepharoplasty is a treatment designed to tighten those structures around your eyes by removing the excess skin, fat, and lax muscle from the eyelids. This procedure can treat both baggy lower eyelids and droopy upper eyelids, which can block your eyesight.
Cosmetic blepharoplasty is not covered by insurance. If your eyelids are blocking your vision, there may be a medical reason for the eyelid surgery. Heavy upper eyelids (ptosis) may interfere with your vision and your insurance may help cover the cost. You will need a visual field test to determine if you have ptosis.
How Does Blepharoplasty Work?
There are several options for anesthesia to make you comfortable during surgery. Blepharoplasty is sometimes done with just local anesthesia (medicine injected around your eye to numb the area.) In some cases, your surgeon may use sedation (relaxed or put to sleep) with medicine from a needle in your arm or pills taken before surgery. Less commonly, or if getting eyelid surgery with other surgery, your doctor may give you a deeper type of anesthesia that makes you unconscious for surgery (general anesthesia.) Your ophthalmologist will discuss which type of anesthesia seems right for you, and they may involve an anesthesia specialist.
After anesthesia gets administered, your ophthalmologist will then remove or change the position of skin, muscle, and fat in your upper and/or lower eyelids.
For your upper lid, your doctor makes an incision in our eyelid’s natural crease. For your lower lid, the doctor makes an incision either through the skin just below your lashes, or in the conjunctiva (moist inside surface of your lid) where you can’t see it. They make the incision with either a scalpel or a CO2 laser. Using a laser reduces your risk of scarring, minimizes bleeding, bruising, swelling, and discomfort, and has a faster recovery time compared to using a scalpel.
At the end of your procedure, your ophthalmologist will put in sutures (stitches) in your eyelids to close the incisions (cuts.)
Recovering from Blepharoplasty
You will likely experience a good amount of swelling and bruising following your blepharoplasty. But as these side effects subside, you will begin to see that the procedure was effective.
You can make your recovery smooth and straightforward for yourself. Follow your doctor’s instructions: use erythromycin ointment, ice compresses (a frozen bag of peas wrapped in a pillowcase or a blue gel pak), and any prescribed medications to reduce swelling.
Also, get plenty of rest to speed up recovery, and be careful not to do anything strenuous to avoid reopening the incisions. It is also vital that you protect your eyes from the sun as much as possible. As always, use 100% UV A & B protective sunglasses.
Would you like to rejuvenate the skin and muscles around your eyes? Schedule a consultation at VisionPoint Eye Center in Bloomington, IL. Find out if blepharoplasty can help you look and feel younger!
