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About Face

C H A P T E R T H R E E

The Eye Region

Chapter Three The Eye Region Upper and Lower Lid Surgery Forehead-lift The Single Lid (Oriental Eye) Permanent Lash Enhancement

FOR SOME REASON, people often come looking for a blepharoplasty, or plastic surgery of the eye, when they are having romantic troubles. As I explained in the chapter on facial assessment (Chapter One), I have to proceed carefully in these cases because patients are setting themselves up for disappointment if they think removing the bags under their eyes will win back a lost love. Knowing this doesn’t shield me from their tears, however, and I am truly saddened by some of the stories I hear. The advice I give to the man or woman whose spouse has just run off is go home, dry their tears and come to see me aging in six months, when they are more emotionally stable.

Recently, I thought I had properly screened a patient, and we went ahead with both a face-lift and a blepharoplasty. She had casually mentioned that her husband was away for three weeks and that a girlfriend would be coming to take her home after the operation. Over the course of several, subsequent postoperative visits, I finally found out that her husband had, indeed, left her. If I’d known, I very likely wouldn’t have taken her on, but she proved the exception to the rule and handled the breakup well. I was less gullible with a fellow she came in and said, “Do my eyes, Doc. My wife and I have split up.” We wanted for a while on that one.

Simply put. blepharoplasty is an operation that removes the excess skin and fat of the upper and/or lower eyelids. The excess skin comes about because, with age, the thin skin of the eyelids loses its elasticity and begins to sag. A blepharoplasty makes the eyes look larger and even gives them more sparkle - quite literally, I think, because the surface area of the cornea, the “window” of the eye, catches more light.

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