Question (cont):Will eyelid surgery help? I am tired of looking tired. I feel like no matter what I do or how much rest I get my eyelids are always droopy. What is the recovery time? Will I have black eyes after the surgery? The pic is after cosmelon, hence the red face.

Dr A’s Answer: Looking at your photos, it appears that you would benefit from upper blepharoplasty. Age causes upper eyelids to droop, but genetically, some eyelids will be “droopy” right from the start. Upper eyelid surgery on some individuals isn’t so much for aging but rather to change the shape of a facial feature. Many people will be intermediate where they have heavy eyelids as a youngster that takes a minimal amount of aging to become droopy. It is important to understand the difference between “droopy” and “full” upper eyelids. These are different things and different ways of doing surgery will affect these aspects differently. A discussion of how you want these different aspects changed is important for your satisfaction. Of course you need a one-on-one exam with a surgeon to say for certain how good a candidate you are.

As I perform upper eyelid surgery, the recovery is typically quite minimal. Bruising is usually very mild and limited to the upper eyelid itself. Sutures are removed in 4 or 5 days and makeup can be worn the next day. Often, with makeup, a patient will be in public at 5 days without being questioned about “what happened to your eyes”. Of course, on rare occasions, people do get a “black eye” that takes 2 weeks. Pain is virtually none and activity restriction is rest for 24 hours and then simply to avoid heavy exertion for 1 to 2 weeks. Anesthesia for the procedure is at the patient’s preference. Some prefer local only, some prefer local with oral (valium) sedation, and others prefer to be sleeping. I give a full comparison to my patients and let them choose.