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Eyelid surgery (blepharoplasty) is a cosmetic procedure to restore youthfulness to aging eyes. If you have drooping eyelids, baggy-looking eyes, or extra fatty tissue in your eyelids, blepharoplasty can help.

Skin around the eyes is very delicate and thinner than on the rest of the face. As we age, skin tends to become thinner and we tend to store fat more easily. This can add up to a look around the eyes that belies your youthful spirit and even gives a bored or cynical look that does not reflect your true feelings.

The Blepharoplasty Procedure
Blepharoplasty is an outpatient procedure requiring only local anesthesia and a mild sedative given through an IV (intravenous) line. Incisions in the skin always leave scars, and nobody wants to have scarred eyelids. Therefore the small incisions are made in the upper eyelid crease, following that curve. This makes the resulting scar virtually invisible.

Unwanted skin and fat is removed. This reduces puffiness and allows the upper lid to lie smooth and flat as it does in youthful eyes. In the lower lids the incision is made inside the lid, which makes the tiny scar entirely invisible. Stitches dissolve by themselves.

When excess skin is removed, the remaining skin tightens and smoothes out, eliminating many wrinkles.

What Blepharoplasty Does Not Do
Dark circles under the eyes are not affected unless they are the result of large bags. If the skin is simply discolored, that will remain. Crow’s feet are not eliminated, nor are drooping eyebrows. However, a brow lift can correct drooping eyebrows, and Botox® or some of the dermal fillers like Restylane® can help with crow’s feet.

How Safe is Blepharoplasty?
When it is performed by a fully-qualified and experienced cosmetic surgeon or ophthalmologist, it is very safe. The best surgeons screen their patients very carefully so as not to do a procedure that is inappropriate or unsafe for a given individual. Blepharoplasty does not affect the eyesight negatively, and in some cases it can improve it, when a sagging upper eyelid is drooping into the visual field.

If you are in the San Francisco Bay area in California, and would like to know more about eyelid surgery, you could contact Dr. Robert Filer, who is both an ophthalmologist and a cosmetic surgeon. That double qualification gives him extra knowledge of the eyes, their skin, muscles, and functioning. His practice is devoted to the eyes, for both cosmetic enhancement and health improvement. He can diagnose your eye health and treat it; and also prescribe vision correction.

Why not email cosmetic ophthalmologist Dr. Robert Filer today and schedule a free consultation.