Blepharoplasty Eyelid Surgery BEVERLY HILLS / LOS ANGELES
What is Eyelid Surgery?
Results may vary and are not guaranteed.Aesthetic eyelid surgery, known as blepharoplasty, is facial plastic surgery that rejuvenates the upper and/or lower eyelids and surrounding area. This is accomplished by improving loose skin, fatty deposits, bags under the eyes, and eyelid droopiness. Blepharoplasty can improve droopy upper eyelids and baggy lower eyelids in most cases and will result in making you look more rested and youthful.
Beverly Hills facial plastic surgeon Dr. Richard Ellenbogen has written the eyelid surgery (blepharoplasty) chapter in the prestigious textbook, Plastic Reconstructive and Maxillofacial Surgery. He is noted for his technique to correct asymmetrical eyelids.
Eyelid surgery or Blepharoplasty is best for improving and rejuvenating:
- Droopy lower eyelids that reveal the white below your iris
- Bags under the eyes
- Fatty deposits that make the lower eyelids puffy
- Excess skin and fine wrinkles on your lower eyelids
Why get eyelid surgery?
You want to restore your youthful appearance. If you have drooping or puffy eyelids, sometimes they seem to be the single thing that adds the most years to your overall appearance. Youth and vibrancy can be restored to your face with expertly crafted eyelid surgery. Eyelid Surgery may be performed for cosmetic reasons or to improve sight by lifting droopy eyelids out of the patient’s field of vision. The procedure is usually performed in an office with local anaesthesia.
What is Dr. Richard Ellenbogen’s Eyelid Surgery Technique?
A Total Reversal of Technique: In the past, many blepharoplasty patients would have the excess skin of their upper eyelid removed along with some muscle and fat tissue. In most cases these patients had visual fields performed showing that they were losing some of their upper field vision. The visual field was a very easy test to fake and make it appear that you were getting your upper eyelids done to improve your vision. In truth, very few patients have visual field problems from heavy upper eyelids and Dr. Ellenbogen would even go so far as to say that most patients who had confirmatory visual field tests did not need the surgery for better vision in the upper plane field of vision but did it for insurance reimbursement.
Consequently, eyelid surgery previously was removing skin and muscle from the upper lid, and fat, to make the eyelid deeper. However, if you look at every major actress today, from Jennifer Lawrence to Megan Fox to Mila Cunis to Charlize Theron to Anne Hathaway to Natalie Portman, etc., all of them have heavier Asian-type eyes. In fact, the next time you are in a group of young women, look at their upper eyelids; none of them have deep upper eyelids. It is just not something that is very prevalent in our youth. The continued use of the operation for vision has fallen by the wayside with this realization that deep eyes and hollow eyes look old. A woman who is sixty will have no fat around her eyes creating deep hollow eyes. Fat will start disappearing in the middle thirties until it is gone in her seventies. Surgeons have actually been accelerating the aging process.
Consequently, the great reversal of upper blepharoplasty is filling with fat grafting rather than cutting off. The experienced and artistically inclined plastic surgeon realized that the heavy upper eyelid is a sign of youth. Early folds and wrinkles in the upper eyelid, rather than being excised, should be filled up with the patient’s own fat. Many patients have this done with a filler, but then again fillers are a temporary form and in many cases the Tyndall effect is seen when using fillers in the upper eyelids; a bluish tinge forms over the eyelids. Fortunately most fillers can be reverted and dissolved.
Making the upper eyelids heavier as they were in youth with fat is a difficult process. The fat has to be processed properly and placed directly over the orbital rim, thus lowering it and creating a specified tarsal crease. Symmetry is vital.
Of interest, many patients who come to the plastic surgeon desirous of forehead lift or eyebrow lift realize, when shown on the computer that filling in this depth of the upper eyelid actually raises the eyebrow, both via optical illusion and in actuality. The medial eyebrow can be lifted a number of millimeters without the much more dramatic forehead lift, which in many cases gives an unnatural or staring appearance. The lateral eyebrow can also be raised using fat on the orbital rim. Generally about 3 cc of fat is used in each upper eyelid in order to create this heavier, more youthful eyelid.*
Have the Lower Eyelid Treatments Changed?
The lower eyelid treatment has changed significantly over the years. Many dermatologists and other doctors not familiar with orbital fat herniation attempt to hide it with fillers. The results are less than successful and create a bluish tint under the skin and, all in all the herniated fat pockets are still visible under the skin. Lower lid bags or herniations of the orbital fat should be removed from inside the eye (trans-conjunctivally). This, in most cases, allows the skin and muscle, which was present over a convexity, to re-drape over the new concavity. Care must be taken to remove all three of the fat pockets evenly to create the proper contour. In some cases, particularly in older patients, it is necessary after the removal of the three fat pockets to place some fat over the rim to prevent the hollowness which may be present in an older face.
In lower blepharoplasty, most ophthalmic plastic surgeons recommend a canthopexy, holding the lateral eyelid to the orbital bone and preventing a pulling down of the eyelid. Dr. Ellenbogen thinks in many cases this creates an unnatural look in the lower eyelid and is an operation which is overdone and should be done only if necessary, reserving it for the older patient with a severely lax lower lid. Removing skin in the lower eyelid in the proper patient is a very dramatic operation. In fact in some cases lower eyelids removing skin and placing fat to fill out the area which has hollowed somewhat, as done in the upper eyelid, creates an extraordinarily youthful, natural look.
Forehead lifts, at one time, were one of the most popular operations and were performed with almost every facelift. Dr. Ellenbogen rarely, if ever, performs a forehead lift any more. He feels that the propensity toward hair loss, irregular hairline, unnatural movement of the eyebrows, and paresthesias, numbness, and itching postoperatively make him really evaluate whether a patient needs a forehead lift or if he can create the same eyebrow elevation with fat injections to the supraorbital rim. This is something which has been a major change in his practice. Rarely a patient who had a facelift would leave his office without a concurrent forehead lift, but with the advance of fat grafting and its use in the hollowed and the aged eye, the forehead lift is now a rarity instead of something which is used universally.
Fat grafting is also utilized in the temples when the temples are deep. Frequently the hollowed out look in the eyes is also there in the temples and in the face. After fat grafting the upper and lower eyelids, a few cc’s of fat is almost routinely placed in the temple to create a natural, youthful, buoyant look around the eyes which are still windows of the soul.
Men Versus Women for Eyelid Surgery
Men are different than women in what they want out of eyelid surgery. Men do not wear makeup, use false eyelashes, or eyebrow pencil. Consequently, the surgery in a man has to be masculine and precise. The heavier eyelid is present in almost all male actors from Clint Eastwood to Tom Cruise to Colin Furth to Ryan Reynolds. Basically it is the style of eyelid that men should have if they have a hollow eye. The eyelid can be made heavier with the same technique of adding fat to the orbital rim and the lateral eyebrow can be raised by putting fat underneath this area. Frequently, in doing the lower eyelid of men we get the problem of the nasojugal fold, now called the tear trough. In order to correct the tear trough most people feel that it can be filled with fat and that through the lower eyelid incision, the release of the arcus marginalis, which is the connection of the orbicularis oculi muscle to the bone at the orbital rim, must be released and almost immediately the nasojugal fold becomes blended in. In many cases, both the release of the arcus marginalis and fat in the nasojugal fold is necessary to create a smooth contour in both men and women.
Many of the older eyelid operations done many years ago resulted in ectropion requiring a canthopexy repair. Similarly, many eyelid surgeries done years ago created deep hollow eyes, which also require repair. The correction for the ectropion is similar to that for the canthopexy. In all cases of lower eyelid surgery, the minimum amount of skin should be removed to avoid a different shape of the eye.
Women refer to their eyes as round or almond-shaped and sometimes it is difficult for the physician to understand the relationship to the word almond or round, but much of this relates to makeup techniques that women have used over the years to shape the eyes properly and make them appear youthful.
Eyebrow positioning and shape is very important in the expression that the eyes denote. When the medial brow is too low a certain angriness or possibly aged expression is transmitted. The highest part of the brow should be the outside of the corner of the pupil and not the highest point at the lateral canthus of the brow. Many women like to create an exotic look of the eyebrow but in many cases this exotic look with the high lateral eyebrow and low medial eyebrow creates an angry, unpleasant appearance.
The mouth and the eyebrows denote most of the facial expression and drawing an imaginary line from the corner of the nose to the corner of the eye, extending that line upward and using a plucker or a pencil the brow should not come any more toward the center than that. The same is done for the outer part of the brow and the same is done for the highest part of the brow, which is aligned from the outside of the color of the eye directly toward the top of the head. Adhering to these three different points, the neutral brow which is used from the days of the divas to the days of the rock stars creates a pleasant appearance allowing the mouth to create the smile. Eyes are, indeed, the windows of the soul and most of the make-up made is for the eyes, the eyelids, and the eyebrows.
The heavier eyelid in almost all cases is more youthful than the deeper eyelid. In fact, creating a deeper eyelid, in many cases, prematurely ages the upper eyelid and the forehead.
What to expect?
Dr. Richard Ellenbogen is a triple fellowship trained and board certified Beverly Hills Plastic Surgery expert whose team of surgeons has helped many eyelid surgery patients, face lift patients, and rhinoplasty patients achieve lasting and natural-looking results. Beverly Hills Body is well known for quality service and quality surgical outcomes.
As part of the process, Dr. Richard Ellenbogen will give you the opportunity to thoroughly examine photographs of his patients, looking at his earlier work, so that you can see for yourself what to expect if he performs your eyelid surgery. He will discuss with you the change that you want, and make recommendations for the best methods that he can use to achieve those changes. It is important that you and your doctor agree on the aesthetics and mechanics of your surgery in order to obtain the results that you want.
Call us today or contact us online to schedule your personalized consultation with one of the top plastic surgeons in Los Angeles & Beverly Hills, Dr. Richard Ellenbogen. Call 310.276.3183 today.
*Results may vary for different patients and are not guaranteed. Contact our office to schedule a personalized consultation to determine if you are a good candidate.
