Is the skin around your eyes changing, leaving you looking older and less like yourself? Perhaps it’s even starting to affect your vision? While considered a normal part of aging, sagging skin around the eyes can be incredibly frustrating. But with eyelid surgery, also known as blepharoplasty, the skin around the eyes can be tightened to help you look refreshed and striking. Zormeier Cosmetic Surgery & Longevity Center offers it at all five of our locations: Noblesville, IN, Shelbyville, IN, Danville, IL, and our Northern California locations Healdsburg, CA, and Ukiah, CA.
How Long Is Recovery After Eyelid Surgery?
Generally, it takes up to 14 days following surgery for patients to be able to get back to normal life. In this window, it’s important that you properly rest, take time off work and let the other people in your life handle things like chores, cooking, and looking after the kids. Many patients are excited to step back from the world and spend some time relaxing, catching up on podcasts – it’s like a mini-vacation where you return looking fresher than ever!
What, Specifically, Can Eyelid Surgery Address?
Signs of aging around the eyes are a frequent concern for people because it can make them look older, more tired, or more upset than they actually are. A lot of people come to us looking to treat under-eye bags caused by sagging skin below the eyes. This treatment can also tighten loose, excess, or drooping skin around the eyelids and reduce the size of fat deposits around the upper eyelids. It can even reduce the appearance of fine wrinkles around the eyes.
How Does Eyelid Surgery Work?
Upper Blepharoplasty
If your concerns are to do with sagging skin above the eyes, resulting in drooping, looser skin, we will recommend an upper blepharoplasty. During this process, we make a series of tiny incisions to your upper eyelids. We take care to stay in the creases so that the marks remain inconspicuous. Through these subtle incisions, we are able to remove unwanted fat and excess skin. The final result is more lifted eyelids that make the patient look younger and more alert. This is an optimal treatment for patients whose sagging eyelids impair their vision.
Lower Blepharoplasty
If under-eye bags are your problem, then we can address this head-on by tightening the skin under the eyes. Like with an upper blepharoplasty, we do this by making very small cuts in the treatment area, taking great care as the skin is very delicate in this area. Fat and excess skin are removed and then the skin is sewn or sutured back together to create new tightness and a smoother, more lifted look. We can even discuss fat graphing to add volume to these areas if they look sunken or hollow.
A Combination
Often, the aesthetic concerns of the upper and lower eyelids come as a package deal. Luckily, we’re able to offer both surgeries at once so that you can completely restore youth and smoothness to your eyes and walk away with new confidence. We’ll likely be able to do it in one session, too! If you have other cosmetic concerns as well, feel free to discuss them with us and we can talk about how much we can do to help you achieve your dream skin.
What Will My Treatment Be Like?
An Initial Consultation
We’ll first ask that you come in for a chat with a member of our expert staff so you can talk us through your cosmetic concerns and goals. This will be our chance to ensure this treatment will work for you, or if another treatment would work better for you. We’ll go over your medical history and any medications you might be on to make sure you’re a healthy candidate. If everything looks suitable, we’ll draw you up a treatment plan that we’ll follow along with on the day of surgery.
Steps To Take
Ahead of your treatment, we’ll ask that you prepare yourself and your body to ensure the best results are achieved. This will likely involve avoiding blood-thinning medications like aspirin and fish oil tablets, and staying out of harsh sunlight that could burn your skin. Because this procedure is surgical, you’ll have to stop eating a few hours beforehand. During your consultation, we’ll give you more specific instructions tailored to you as an individual and your lifestyle.
On the Day
The exact length of time of this procedure will depend on what kind of surgery you’re getting, but we can estimate it will roughly take about two hours. You’ll first be given an anesthetic so that you don’t feel anything throughout the treatment. Once you’re under, the incisions will be made to the treatment area with the utmost care and delicacy. Our brilliant staff is expert in making tiny, unnoticeable incisions. Once all the fat and excess skin have been removed, the incisions will be closed up with sutures, and then you’re all done!
What Can I Do To Speed Up the Healing Process After Surgery?
We will give you instructions for self-care to make your recovery as quick as possible, and it’s crucial you follow along with these. If we prescribe you medication, you should take it as it will help with your comfort levels. We’ll likely also recommend:
- Staying out of harsh elements like sunlight and the wind
- Not straining your eyes by reading or spending time on your computer
- Resting as much as you can, and always getting a good night’s sleep
- Stop smoking
- Limit your movement, as it can increase blood flow to your eyes
What Will My Results Look Like?
Patients love that this treatment turns the clock back on aging eyes; without sagging skin, they look years younger! Many patients find they look more alert and fresher. Importantly, this surgery doesn’t dramatically change your face’s structure, so the results look natural whilst still striking and gorgeous. If you want to maintain privacy following your treatment, you’ll be able to tell people you just got some rest, and they’ll be none the wiser!
Who Is a Good Candidate for This Treatment?
If you’re over the age of 18 and sick of drooping and sagging eyes, you may be interested in this treatment. Many of our clients are over 40, but we appreciate that things like genetics and damage from the sun can cause these skin concerns to develop quicker in some young people. We don’t prescribe one specific skin tone or gender as more suitable, and in fact, recommend this treatment to men who worry that their drooping skin is making them look angry or worried when they’re not.
Certain medical conditions and medications may render you ineligible for treatment; in particular, existing eye-related conditions such as glaucoma. If your skin concerns go beyond your eyes, we may suggest a different treatment such as a facelift. Whatever the case, we will be able to suggest several excellent alternative treatments, both surgical and non-invasive, that can help you on your cosmetic journey.
What Are Other Ways I Can Look After My Eyes?
Beyond this treatment, there are a number of ways that you can take care of your eyes and stop wrinkles and sagging skin from developing. For example, wearing highly protective sunscreen and powerful sunglasses will ensure that the skin around the eyes stays tight and firm. Not only do UV rays damage the skin and lead to a loss of collagen and elastin, but having to squint in sunlight can lead to wrinkles like crow’s feet forming over time.
Maintaining an excellent skincare routine is also crucial. While it’s important you figure out your skin type and choose specific products accordingly, we always recommend using fragrance-free, dermatologist-approved cleansers and moisturizers. Incorporating anti-aging products like vitamin C, hyaluronic acid, and retinol are also great steps to take. If you want to learn more, ask us about dermatology recommendations during your consultation!
Schedule Your Consultation With Us Today
Are you sick of sagging skin making you look older and more tired than you really are? Now you can feel more gorgeous and youthful with eyelid surgery. Our expert team is situated all over America to help you achieve your cosmetic goals. So what are you waiting for? To get started, call Zormeier Cosmetic Surgery & Longevity Centers in Noblesville, IN, Shelbyville, IN, Danville, IL, Healdsburg, CA, and Ukiah, CA today.