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Eyelid Lift Surgery (Blepharoplasty)

As you age, your eyelids stretch, muscles weaken and excess fat gathers above and below your eyelids, causing sagging eyebrows, drooping upper lids and bags and dark circles under your eyes. Baggy skin can impair vision and make you look and feel older.

before and after photos - before before and after photos - after

Cosmetic eyelid surgery, or blepharoplasty (BLEF-uh-ro-plas-te), repairs droopy eyelids by removing excess skin, muscle and fat. To help decide if this surgery is right for you, find out what you can realistically expect and the benefits and risks involved.

Blepharoplasty usually takes one to three hours, depending on the extent of the surgery. In a typical procedure, incisions are made following the natural lines of your eyelids -- in the creases of your upper lids -- and just below the lashes in the lower lids. The incisions may extend into the crow's feet or laugh lines at the outer corners of your eyes. Working through these incisions, the skin is separated from underlying fatty tissue and muscle, removes excess fat, and often trims sagging skin and muscle. The incisions are then closed with very fine sutures.

If you have a pocket of fat beneath your lower eyelids but don't need to have any skin removed, a transconjunctival blepharoplasty may be performed. In this procedure the incision is made inside your lower eyelid, leaving no visible scar. It is usually performed on younger patients with thicker, more elastic skin.

After Eyelid Surgery (Blepharoplasty)

You should be able to read or watch television after two or three days. However, you won't be able to wear contact lenses for about two weeks, and even then they may feel uncomfortable for a while.

Most people feel ready to go out in public (and back to work) in a week to 10 days. By then, depending on your rate of healing and your doctor's instructions, you'll probably be able to wear makeup to hide the bruising that remains. You may be sensitive to sunlight, wind, and other irritants for several weeks, and should wear sunglasses and a special sunblock made for eyelids when you go out.