Cosmetic Plastic Surgery Articles

The face you see looking back at you in the mirror as you remove your makeup each night, does it look tired?

Inside, you may feel as vibrant as you did in your twenties. But your eyes are telling a different story to everyone you come in contact with.

Cosmetic eyelid surgery is a way to align those two versions of yourself. It restores a more refreshed and naturally youthful appearance to aging eyes.

Here’s what eyelid surgery, or blepharoplasty, can treat:

• Loose or sagging skin that creates folds around the upper eyelid
• Fatty deposits that appear as puffiness in the eyelids
• Bags under the eyes
• Drooping lower eyelids
• Excess skin and fine wrinkles of the lower eyelid

What’s eyelid surgery like?

Eyelid surgery can be performed on your upper eyelids, lower eyelids, or both. Your plastic surgeon will determine how much skin, and/or fat to remove based on a thorough pre-operative evaluation.

From there, your surgeon will make precise markings to indicate where the excess tissue will be removed. In the upper eyelid, the incision will be hidden in the natural fold of the upper eyelid. In the lower eyelid, it’ll be hidden just below the lower lashes. When excess fat is removed, the incision can also be placed inside the lower eyelid, in which case a laser is sometimes used to tighten the lower eyelid skin.

The excess tissue will be removed with scalpels, surgical scissors, radiofrequency cutting devices, and, sometimes, cutting lasers. Less tissue will be removed if you have dry eyes because exposing more of your eyes to air could worsen your symptoms.

Fat is sometimes redistributed in the lower eyelids to eliminate puffiness or bulges. In the process, your surgeon may also make adjustments to correct special issues, like muscle laxity.

Sutures or glue are then applied to smooth and reconfigure the areas around the eyebrows and eyelids. The sutures are invisible to the eye and usually self-dissolving. In most cases, there are virtually no detectable scars. A laser may also be used to resurface skin and smooth wrinkles in and around the eyelids.

The surgery is performed as an outpatient procedure and usually lasts between 45 minutes and two hours. Depending on the extent of yours, you’ll be given either general anesthesia or local anesthesia with IV sedation.

Eyelid surgery alone can significantly rejuvenate your appearance, but it’s also commonly combined with other complementary procedures, such as a facelift, brow lift, or both. A brow lift will address the sagging skin and deep furrows above the eyes, while a facelift will resolve jowling, sagging, and wrinkles on the cheeks and neck.

How about the recovery?

During the first few days to a week following eyelid surgery, it’s common for patients to have some visible bruising and swelling. Their eyelids may also feel unusually tight and more bothersome than normal. This can often be relieved with cold compresses.

Most are fit to return to work within five to seven days. For the first few weeks back, you can expect your eyes to get tired a little more quickly than usual. You’ll also need to avoid lifting, straining, and bending down to pick things up for about two weeks. And it’s critical that you protect your eyes from the sun and wind.

The effects of your eyelid surgery, with a healthy lifestyle and a good skincare regimen, should last for years. Nothing stops the aging process, but your results will age naturally with you.

Botox injections are the fastest-growing cosmetic procedure at the moment. Last year, almost 7.5 million of them were performed in the United States, according to the American Society of Plastic Surgeons. That’s an 845 percent increase over 2000.

So, its power to reduce fine lines and wrinkles is real. But that’s not the only reason for its explosive growth. Did you know doctors also use Botox to treat migraines and hyperhidrosis (excessive sweating)? In fact, Botox was originally used to treat migraines. Later on, doctors realized it also smoothed wrinkles.

Migraine relief

The FDA, in 2010, approved Botox as a treatment for chronic migraines in adults 18 and over, meaning that you need to experience a headache on 15 or more days of the month. (It’s considered an “off-label” treatment for kids and adolescents, which means it can be prescribed, but it may not be covered by insurance.)

Botox enters the nerve endings around where it’s injected and blocks the release of chemicals involved in pain transmission. Essentially, it halts a migraine before it has a chance to start. But it typically takes a couple of treatments for it to take effect, and the benefits seem to grow with each treatment cycle thereafter. (One treatment lasts 10 to 12 weeks.)

According to the American Migraine Foundation, patients reported that two Botox treatments reduced the number of their headache days by half.

A treatment usually takes about 20 minutes and entails 31 injections with a very small needle—it feels like a pinprick—in several key areas of the head and neck.

It’s covered by most insurance plans, including Medicare and Medicaid, but they typically require you to have first tried and failed to respond to two other preventative treatments.

No more sweating

Botox injections are a relatively new treatment for hyperhidrosis. The FDA approved it for those who sweat excessively from their armpits, but it may also be used “off-label” to reduce sweating from hands, feet, and the face.

Not unlike its application with migraine sufferers, Botox blocks the nerves responsible for activating your sweat glands. Normally, when your body temperature rises, your nervous system activates your sweat glands. It’s the body’s natural cooling method. But the nerves that send that signal are overactive in those with hyperhidrosis.

Botox essentially paralyzes those nerves and prevents the sweating, but only in the specific area where the Botox was injected. You’ll receive several injections with a fine needle that’ll form a sort of grid pattern around the area of concern. It’s a pretty simple procedure that can be done during an office visit. And you’ll be able to resume your day as soon as it’s done.

It’ll take between two and seven days to stop sweating in the treated area and up to two weeks for total dryness. But that dryness will last between four and 14 months (for the armpits).

Insurance providers usually cover the full cost, but, like the migraine treatments, they may ask that you try other options first, like a prescription antiperspirant.