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It is hard to feel fresh and alert when the eyes that look back at you from the mirror every morning look tired and droopy, with those annoying bags under them. It is not that you do not get enough rest. Even after a good night’s sleep many people still have that loose skin and those puffy bags that never seem to go away. They may have just gotten that way in the last few years, or you may have had them all your life and they just deteriorated recently. But if your eyes are starting to make you look old and tired, this may be a very simple problem to correct. Many doctors would suggest blepharoplasty. In fact, every year thousands of men and women choose a wonderful little operation called blepharoplasty. This is surgery is able to give the eyes a more alert, awake and vibrant look.
This operation removes excess droopy skin from the upper eyelids, and the bags from under the eyes. It gives the eyes a more wide-open and well-rested look. Blepharoplasty can be done alone or in combination with other facial procedures such as a facelift or laser skin resurfacing.
Either way, the improvement in your appearance can be remarkable after this minor procedure. Compared to other cosmetic surgical procedures, blepharoplasty is a relatively minor surgery. Generally done in the office operating room with local anesthesia and a mild sedative, it takes only a couple of hours. After the eyelids are numbed by a local anesthetic, the surgeon will remove excess loose skin from the upper eyelids and close the skin with extremely fine sutures. When the skin heals the scar is hidden in a natural skin crease of the upper eyelid, and is invisible. Bags and loose skin are removed from below the eyes with another fine incision just below your lower lashes.
Common cause for bags under the eyes is bulging fat. This fat is removed, or pushed back inside where it belongs. The surgeon will then close the incision, again using extremely fine sutures. That scar is hidden in a natural skin crease just below the lashes and also becomes invisible when it heals. If there are bags under the eyes but no excess loose skin, the bags may be removed by a technique called transconjunctival blepharoplasty – a little bit different then typical blepharoplasty.
This new procedure involves a tiny incision just inside of the lower eyelid, and not in the skin. The incision should be through the excess fat causing the bags, so it is possible to remove. This has the added benefit of leaving no visible scar at all below the eyelashes. Moreover, healing and recovery are a little faster as well. This may be the best choice for certain patients, though not necessarily for everyone. That is why you should discuss this option with your doctor if you wish to try this solution. Most people walk out of the operating room feeling fine within a few minutes after surgery. They also resume all their usual daily activities the very next day. Some patients even go back to work the next day, perhaps just wearing a pair of dark glasses to hide their stitches after blepharoplasty.
For most people there is no real downtime, but some get mild bruising around the eyes for a few days after the surgery. After five days the doctor will remove stitches, and two days later you could apply eye makeup. Blepharoplasty is often combined with other facial procedures, such as a facelift, browlift or laser skin resurfacing, as per patient’s desire. For these other procedures the doctor will prefer a deeper sedation or a general anesthetic. Generally the blepharoplasty does not increase the recovery time for these other procedures at all. Apart from the fact that the eyes look greatly improved, the patient would hardly even know the eyelid surgery had been done.
Many people wonder if their insurance will cover this surgery. Since the loose skin of the upper eyelids hangs so far down over the eyes, interfering with vision, many insurance policies will cover a blepharoplasty surgery to correct this condition. That is why if you feel your eyelids are interfering with your vision, an optometrist or ophthalmologist can perform a test called a visual fields test to determine the extent to which your vision is affected. If you show significant visual impairment, you will need to bring the results of the test to a special office and your insurance may cover this surgery.
If vision is not impaired, your insurance will consider blepharoplasty as a cosmetic procedure and it will not be covered. However, many people do not know that even when insurance does not cover it, blepharoplasty is surprisingly affordable. That is why if you have experienced bags under the eyes and nothing helps, you should try blepharoplasty.