As people age, changes in the eyelids are common. Often, the skin of the upper and lower eyelids stretches, allowing the fatty tissue around the eyes to bulge, giving the eyes a puffy appearance. The procedure removes the redundant upper eyelid skin, opens up your eyes and makes you look more wide awake, alert, and younger. A lower lid blepharoplasty is a surgical procedure designed to reduce the puffiness and remove bags that form under the lower eyelids.
A patient can elect to have either the lower lids or upper eyes done, or both at once, depending on their situation. I usually always performs this procedure in the office.
For the upper eyelids, I carry out a traditional Blepharoplasty, removing skin and sometimes fat.
For the lower lids, I do something different than most surgeons: I makes an incision on the inside of the eyelids (so there is no scar!) to remove the fat.
When either an upper or lower blepharoplasty or both is done in the office, I gave oral sedative and that is all that is required (besides the local anesthetic). You must have someone drive you. You cannot drive yourself.
Sometimes, Dr. Berman will recommend that facial fillers be injected to hide the puffiness, instead of doing surgery to reduce the fat pads in the lower eyelids.
What Post-Op care is required for Blepharoplasty?
After a Blepharoplasty, your eyes should have a more relaxed, open appearance, and the skin around your eyes should be smoother.
Immediately following the surgery, the skin around your eyes could be slightly bruised for a few days. It is very important that you do a lot of iceing for the 2 days that you will take off from work. Ideally, 20 minutes of ice on and then no ice for 20 minutes. This is a great opportunity to catch up on movies or TV shows that you have missed during the year. It is helpful to elevate the head of your bed for a week (use 3-5 pillows) to decrease swelling.
For the lower eyelid blepharoplasty, I will have you use an eye ointment to use for 3-5 days on the inside of your eye.
Although I give everyone painkillers after surgery, most patients do not require more than a couple of painkillers.
The upper eyelid suture is one long suture that I easily remove in the office approximately 6 days after surgery. Normally, there are no sutures to remove from the lower eyelid.
You can shower the day following surgery, You can wash your hair and face then too. You can resume full exercising after 10 days. Everyone will have some swelling. You should expect it to keep improving for 3-6 months. I will see you during this time period in the office.