Eye Lift Surgery

Albany, Schenectady & Saratoga Springs Blepharoplasty / Eyelid Surgery

The aging process is probably the main factor in making your eyelids and eyes look less beautiful than they can be. Factors other than aging may distort your eyelids as well, including:

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• Too much sun exposure
• Heredity
• Too much or too little body fluid, causing bags and wrinkles around the eyes

A blepharoplasty (eye lift) is a common plastic surgery procedure used to remove excess skin, herniated fat, and atrophied muscle from the upper and lower eyelids.

Lower Eyelid

The lower eyelid is particularly vulnerable to bags and wrinkles. Your wrinkles begin as tiny lines underneath your eye and crow's feet beside your eye. As gravity continues to weigh down your skin, those fine lines become deeper, more pronounced wrinkles and lines.

There is a collection of fat above and below the eye. This fat cushions your eye in its socket. The orbital septum is an eyelid structure which is supposed to keep this collection of eye fat in place. As the skin loses its firmness, your orbital septum weakens. When this happens, your fat swells into your lower eyelid. Your eyelid bulge then casts a deep shadow on your face when light shines down on you from above. As a result, your whole eye not only looks puffy or swollen, but you also look tired and unhealthy.

Upper Eyelid

Your upper eyelid is vulnerable to a whole other set of problems. As you age, your skin gets an elastic quality that often results in extra fat and skin forming a drooping hood over your eyelid. The fat pad that cushions your upper eyelid may also start to protrude, causing your inner eyelid to bulge awkwardly. This results in a sagging, tired, and "older" look.

Your Eye Lift Procedure

During your eye lift procedure, the excess fat and wrinkled skin on the upper eyelids that can make you look tired is removed. This procedure can also be used to eliminate bags under your eyes and to tighten your lower eyelid skin. Sometimes, this surgery is performed in combination with other rejuvenating procedures such as a facelift. At other times, it is performed as a stand-alone procedure. Saratoga Springs plastic surgeon Dr. Bruce Barach can help you determine the best approach for your needs.

You should plan to take three to five days off from work to have an eye lift. Extensive post-operative bruising around the eye is typical and should be planned for. This can take anywhere from one to two weeks to clear up entirely. Despite the bruising, the discomfort tends to be relatively mild.

Please contact our Albany plastic surgeon today to schedule your initial eyelift consultation. Upstate Plastic Surgery serves patients in Albany, Schenectady, Troy, and Saratoga Springs, New York.