Upper eyelid surgery (upper blepharoplasty) for aging looks (Dermatochalasis) is a very common procedure. When we age, there will be more excess skin and more wrinkles appearing in the eyelids. The excessive skin droops and weighs down on the eyes, causing an aged appearance, and in some people, causing blockage of the lymphatic drainage, resulting in swollen/edematous look.
It is well known that 50% of the Asian population does not have crease formation on the upper eyelids (double creases), which makes the eyes appear much smaller and sometimes not so friendly. Hence, it is no wonder that double eyelid surgery ranks the highest among all the cosmetic surgery procedures in Asians.
Most Asians have a skin fold that gradually tapers down from the inner part of the upper eyelid, crossing the inner eye corner, reaching the inner lower eyelid skin for a few millimeters. The “fold” drapes over the inner eye corner in different severities or grades. It is also often referred to as a “Mongolian fold” (medial epicanthal fold). Some people may wish to keep their ethnicity, while others may wish to have the Mongolian folds removed to make the eyes look bigger. To open up the “Mongolian folds, an “inner eye corner” surgery is performed.
Most plastic surgeons believe that the prevalence of ptosis is very high. While there are many true upper eyelid ptosis patients, “fake ptosis” is actually more common than we thought. Often times, people with single eyelid appearance also have levator aponeurosis being so poorly developed that they appear to have levator muscle weakness, resulting in very small eyes. Both traditional and current wisdom would recommend formal ptosis repair surgeries in these patients. However, this maneuver might most likely be an over-kill, giving the patients more trauma with ensuing more edema, more scarring, and more recovery time.
When people age, the eye bags protrude out. With each passing year, the eye bags become bigger and bigger, causing the appearance of tiredness and lack of sleep. Very often, these are accompanied by dark circles and tear troughs. Simply put, there could be a huge difference for people of the same age with or without eye bags. Sometimes, a pair of eye bags could easily add up to ten years on a person’s face.
Dark circles could be a very distractive and depressive feature on any person’s face. It could be caused by deep tear troughs, under-eye pigmentation, dark-colored veins lying too superficial, bad lymphatic drainage, or iatrogenic reasons such as injection of a wrong filler in the tear troughs. Please have a face-to-face consultation with our doctor, in order to find out the exact etiology of your dark circles. When the etiology (pathology, reason) is found, it is then possible for our doctor to formulate a meaningful treatment plan for you.