If you are in your 30s or early 40s, you may already have noticed your upper eyelids starting to sag. Puffy "bags" may be forming beneath your lower lids, as well. As you move through your 40s, the eyelid sagging can worsen, and eyelid wrinkles may begin to form. These changes occur because over the years, eyelid skin thins out and loses tone and becomes more susceptible to the unyielding force of gravity. The fat that cushions the eyeball gradually herniates forward, causing bags in both eyelids. Sagging upper eyelids may result in hooding over the eyes. As a result, your eyes look smaller and your face looks older and more tired.

Intended Result
Blepharoplasty achieves several goals: it tightens droopy or hooded eyelids, restores contour to the lids, and eliminates fatty bags under your eyes. After surgery, your eyes will appear bigger and brighter, giving you a more alert, youthful appearance. Blepharoplasty is the second most popular facial cosmetic procedure in the United States.

Procedure Description
The procedure, if it is the only procedure that day, is done typically under local anethesia with sedation, and occasionally under general anethesia. After the surgery, the patients go home after a short stay in the recovery room.

To correct the upper eyelid, Dr. Mariotti makes an elliptical incision across the eyelid crease. Excess skin is removed between the incisions and the underlying muscle is exposed. A thin strip of muscle is removed to help define the eyelid crease after surgery.

To correct the lower eyelids, an incision is made just below the lower eyelashes and fat and excess skin is removed. If only excess fat is present in the lower lids, it may be removed through an incision inside the lower lids with no external incision or scar (transconjunctival blepharoplasty).