If you’ve been looking at yourself in the mirror lately and thinking about how dark, loose, or hooded your eyes appear, you’re not alone. Drooping skin and changes in the upper lids are common concerns as people age. Even if the rest of your face is weathering the aging process well, your eyes are often the first to truly show their age. This is when blepharoplasty, or eyelid lift surgery, can come in handy.

The Benefits of Blepharoplasty

The blepharoplasty procedure is a personalized surgery that rejuvenates the upper, lower eyelids, or both using minimal techniques that provide virtually no scarring. It’s often used to remove excess sagging skin that contributes to a dark, tired or sagging appearance to the eyes as well as reposition structures beneath the skin to a more youthful position.

The blepharoplasty procedure frequently targets redundant skin and redundant upper eyelid skin, addressing both functional vision concerns and enhancing facial aesthetics.

In this way, blepharoplasty rejuvenates the eyes, helping people look more alert, younger, and even happier in some cases. Age-related changes in connective tissue can contribute to eyelid sagging and the need for blepharoplasty.

Upper Blepharoplasty vs. Lower Blepharoplasty

While some individuals pursue blepharoplasty for functional improvements, others choose the procedure for purely cosmetic reasons, seeking aesthetic enhancement without medical necessity. This is beneficial some of the time, but only certain candidates for blepharoplasty will truly benefit from just one procedure.

When considering upper or lower blepharoplasty, it is important to note that fat removal, including the need to remove excess fat, plays a key role in achieving optimal results and a natural eyelid appearance.

Additionally, the function of the levator muscle and other eye muscles is crucial in eyelid movement, and surgery can address issues related to these structures, such as drooping or heaviness.

Here’s what you can look for when deciding whether you need upper, lower, or both.

Upper Eyelid Surgery

The number one characteristic that reveals you can benefit from an upper eyelid lift is a heavy or hooded appearance to your eyes, often caused by redundant upper eyelid skin. This is distinct from a heavy brow, which appears when the forehead skin sags and the brows create a furrow at the top of the nose.

Two things to look out for include whether you’re finding it difficult to apply makeup to just your upper eyelids – it might be rubbing off on other parts of the skin in the area – or if it looks like your eyes are getting smaller. In severe cases where upper blepharoplasty is used, people begin to lose their peripheral vision due to skin obscuring their vision.

Upper eyelid surgery is almost universally simple to recover from and is a less extensive procedure than lower blepharoplasty. In fact, the procedure is in office and takes less than an hour!

Lower Eyelid Surgery

If your eyes look heavy, tired, or have perpetual dark circles regardless of how alert you feel, lower eyelid blepharoplasty might be for you. Lower eyelid blepharoplasty is a surgical procedure commonly performed to address under eye bags and loose skin, helping to achieve a more youthful appearance.

Lower blepharoplasty typically results in more dramatic changes to a person’s look, while still looking natural and being a simple surgery to recover from.

When You Should Consider Both

All that said, most patients do need both, usually because our typical eyelid surgery patients at FacesFirst are in their middle- to upper-middle-age range, and therefore have concerns about both their upper and lower eyes. However, younger patients with specific severe concerns might benefit exclusively from one surgery rather than two.

Older patients are also typically more likely to undergo both eyelid procedures and/or combination facial cosmetic surgery to limit the total number of surgeries they have over their lifetime. These combination procedures often include a brow lift to remove frown lines or forehead wrinkles, as well as fat transfer to the undereye area for a more full, youthful appearance.

Eyelid Surgery Preparation and Recovery

Preparing for upper eyelid surgery, or upper eyelid blepharoplasty, begins with a thorough initial consultation. During this meeting, you’ll discuss your goals for eyelid surgery, review your medical history, and address any concerns you may have.

Your surgeon will carefully examine your upper and lower eyelids, assessing the amount of excess skin, sagging skin, or bulging eyes, as well as the presence of excess fat or redundant eyelid skin. This evaluation helps determine the best surgical approach to achieve a natural contour and restore a more youthful facial appearance. The goal is to remove excess skin and fat from the upper eyelids, and sometimes the lower eyelids, to correct droopy eyelids and improve both function and aesthetics.

During the initial days after surgery, you may notice some dryness, irritation, or sensitivity in your eyelid skin, as well as temporary blurred or double vision. These side effects are generally short-lived and can be eased with lubricating eye drops and by following your surgeon’s aftercare instructions. It’s important to avoid rubbing your eyes and to protect the delicate eyelid tissue as it heals.

Follow-up appointments will be scheduled so your surgeon can monitor your progress, remove any stitches, and ensure that your recovery is on track. These visits are also an opportunity to address any questions and to make sure you’re achieving the best possible results from your eyelid blepharoplasty.

With careful preparation, adherence to postoperative instructions, and the expertise of a skilled surgeon, most patients enjoy a smooth recovery and long-lasting improvements in their upper eyelids and overall facial appearance. The results of upper eyelid surgery can be transformative, helping you look more alert, youthful, and confident for years to come.

Eyelid Surgery in Denver, Lone Tree, CO

There are myriad concerns and multiple ways to address them through surgical and non-surgical facial rejuvenation techniques, and the physicians at FacesFirst, Dr. Nicolette Picerno and Dr. Christopher Cote, are here to help you understand how you can achieve a more satisfying appearance. If you think you might be interested in eyelid surgery, don’t hesitate to request an appointment at FacesFirst today. We’ll walk through your concerns and how best to address them both immediately and for years to come.

Dr. Christopher Cote and Dr. Nicolette Picerno

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Dr. Christopher Cote and Dr. Nicolette Picerno are board-certified facial plastic surgeons practicing in Denver and Lone Tree, Colorado. They have over 40 years of combined experience together in facial plastic surgery. Both Dr. Cote and Dr. Picerno specialize in procedures like Facelift, Browlift, Facial Rejuvenation, Nose Surgery, and many other types of cosmetic procedures at FacesFirst.