“I’m tired of looking tired when I’m not, but I don’t want to look like a deer in the headlights!” People seeking to improve the bags under their eyes and the sagging skin and puffiness of their upper lids want to look better, but they still want to look natural. A skillfully performed blepharoplasty can really brighten up the face and has an extremely high patient satisfaction rate. So why do some people look great while others look “done” after eyelid surgery?
As important as the actual surgery are the marks the surgeon makes at the beginning of the case. Just as a map with wrong directions won’t get you to your destination, bad marks can lead to an unnatural looking result. The best plastic surgeons plan ahead with carefully placed marks. They remove just enough skin and fat, but not too much, so the new contours make the patient look rested, and they place the incisions according to the shape, lines, and folds of the lids.
Surgeons without thorough plastic surgery training are more likely to either under treat or, even worse, be too aggressive. Removal of too much skin from the eyelids, both upper and lower, can be functionally and cosmetically annoying, even devastating. Patients who have had too much upper lid skin removed may have an unnatural, pulled appearance. They may even need to tape their eyelids closed at night for months or more. Too much lower lid skin removal pulls the lids down, leading to dry eyes and an unnatural appearance.
Often the deer-in-the-headlights look is not actually the result of eyelid surgery alone, but from a brow lift done at the same time. If the eyebrows are lifted too high, the result is a surprised look. These days fewer brow lifts are being done now that Botox and Dysport are able to give a more subtle and natural looking lift. If the eyes are the windows to the soul, a blepharoplasty is the window treatment. When a patient looks in the mirror with newly framed eyes, the eyes that look back just might be eye candy! Contact us online to learn more about our Northern California plastic surgery practice.