Hello, welcome to our frequently asked questions,
today I’m answering a very commonly asked question
about lower blepharoplasty,
will I have pain after having lower blepharoplasty.
My name is Dr. Julian De Silva
and I’m a London based facial cosmetic and plastic surgeon
and blepharoplasty is the commonest procedure
that I complete for my patients on a daily basis.
The information that I’m discussing with you
is information that I discuss with my patients
before having surgery.
So, in terms of lower blepharoplasty
will I have pain after the surgery?
Well, generally speaking
blepharoplasty is a relatively comfortable procedure
and mostly patients don’t have
a great deal of discomfort or pain.
Certainly the lower eyelids can feel a little tight
the first week after the surgery
but generally discomfort
well, it can be the first 24-48 hours
that some patients will feel discomfort.
I give every patient that I treat a prescription
which includes analgesia a pain relief medicine
but I find that over 50% of patients
never need to use the analgesia
and the other 50% may use one or two tablets
over the first 24 to 48 hours.
But after this period it doesn’t tend to be that uncomfortable.
But certainly of relevance to the surgery
is the surgical technique that is used
for your lower blepharoplasty
and I personally use a mixture
of longer acting local anaesthetics or numbing agents
and these numbing agents
work over many hours after the surgery
meaning that many patients don’t need to take analgesia.
Other measures that can make a difference
include using ice and cold compress,
this not only will sooth the area of lower eyelids
but it also speeds up healing by reducing swelling.
So, I give all my patients written instructions
on how to do cold compressors and icing
to the lower eyelids in the first 3 days after surgery
in order to increase comfort and reduce swelling
and speed up healing.
One of my patients who underwent lower eyelid surgery
wrote the description of their experience.
“On the way home I was feeling a little bit sore,
I took, two Paracetamol tablets and fell asleep in the car.
I took two more tablets at bedtime
but that was all the painkillers I needed throughout.”
This was a patient who is particularly anxious
about having blepharoplasty
and she did speak to two of my previous patients
who had undergone the surgery with myself
in order to reassure herself.
That is one suggestion I could make to you
if you’re particularly anxious about discomfort
and having lower blepharoplasty.
Well, it’s quite reasonable for you to ask your surgeon
if they could put you in touch
with one or two patients of theirs
who’ve undergone the same procedure
so that you may just let some of that anxiety pass
by talking through a patient’s experience first hand.
So, in summary lower blepharoplasty
well it doesn’t tend to be at an uncomfortable procedure
for most patients.
Although I completely respect
that patients can feel quite anxious about this.
For most patients lower blepharoplasty
is a relatively straight forward procedure
where patients have a fast recover and minimal discomfort.
I hope this information has been useful for you,
thank you for watching.