Thank you for your question.
You submitted your question with a single photo and although the photo is kind of dark
but I think I can see what I need to see. And you’re asking a situation where you
feel you have hollow sunken eyes and you want a procedure to treat them and you want something
that’s inexpensive. Well, that’s certainly an important type of question and I’ll share
with you my experience about handling situations like yours which we deal with every day in
our practice.
A little bit of background, I’m a Board-certified cosmetic surgeon and Fellowship-trained oculofacial
plastic and reconstructive surgeon. I have been in practice in Manhattan and Long Island
for over 20 years. And dealing with puffy under eye bags and hollow sunken eyes is pretty
much something we deal with every day in our practice and we have a lot of experience and
I have patients who come to me from all over the world with this type of problem.
So from my perspective, when I see this photo, I can understand where you can get the idea
that you have hollow sunken eyes but I think it’s also important to recognize that it’s
clear that you have under eye bags. And so the question of hollowness is actually relative
to the presence of the under eye bags. So the bags under your eyes is essentially like
a mountain and the hollowness is like a valley.
So to understand what your problem is and then go over what the options are for solutions,
the first is to understand what is the anatomy. So what happens as we deal with these anatomic
changes whether they’re genetic, age-related or combination of both, well, the main thing
with the under eye bags is you have lower eyelid fat prolapse. Lower eyelid fat prolapse
is like a hernia. We actually refer to it as fat herniation. It’s fat that’s forward
and front of the rim of the orbit, the bone around the eye and it creates this appearance
of under eye bags.
So in the modern times, we actually have a saturation of providers of different levels
who are ready of what they claim to be the best solution. And I’m saying this because
I want to address that inexpensive part of your question. I have taken care of a lot
of patients who have come to me who went first to the inexpensive route and this is of course,
expensive and inexpensive is in the eye of the beholder especially if one amount of money
can be a lot for one person and can be nothing to another person. But when people try to
solve a problem like yours with solutions especially from aggressive marketing, very
often, they end up at these various strip malls pseudo medispa type of places where
there is no physician and there’s no physician supervising. They don’t offer surgery and
they’re aggressively looking to do some type of non-invasive procedure for you. And
so when it comes to inexpensive, I can promise you, people have spent a lot more money in
the end after chasing these inexpensive solutions before getting the more definitive procedure
which in the initial perception can be seen as expensive.
So what I would recommend for you is something called a lower eyelid blepharoplasty. This
is a surgical procedure and this involves addressing these under eye fat pockets in
a more definitive way. Now generally speaking and of course, this is in the absence of a
physical exam, my approach to someone like yourself would be a combination of lower eyelid
blepharoplasty which means again that I’m addressing the fat pockets from the inside
of the eyelid. This is performed under local anesthesia with LITE™ sedation in our office
operating facilities that are certified by The Joint Commission, the same certifying
body that does hospitals and surgery centers. So essentially, we’re providing the safety
as well as the convenience in one place and doing this in a way that can be very cost
effective especially when you compare facility and anesthesia costs at hospitals and surgery
centers.
Now in addition, we often combine this procedure for people with lighter skin, we do something
called platelet-rich plasma (PRP) which is derived from your own blood and it’s used
to stimulate collagen and improve the quality of your skin as well as do something like
fractional CO2 or fractional Erbium laser to help improve the fine lines and wrinkles
that also contribute to the aged appearance under the eyes.
Now it’s also important to understand that there are other areas of the face that often
has experienced facial aging because the eyes don’t age in isolation. But because the
bags may be the dominant feature, you’re not necessarily paying attention to these
other areas. So there may be other opportunities for fillers and other things. But I think
it’s very important that you understand that quality and cost do often go together
of course up to a point. What you want is good value and so I think it’s important
for you, if you cannot afford a surgical procedure to at least understand that there is no inexpensive
quick solution that is an alternative to surgery. These things are sold very aggressively and
they’re very enticing for people who have budgetary limitations. But I always explain
to my patients that this is not only a procedure but in many ways, it’s a real investment.
It’s an investment in your appearance that can have a positive impact in all areas of
your life including both social and professional. Patients of mine have said to me that after
they’ve had the procedure, they went and got a job and they were able to get a job
even though they were facing age discrimination. Now certainly, I think the procedure helped
them look better but in addition, I think that they also had the confidence to present
themselves in way that made them attractive for an employer.
So I think that there are many ways to really define expense or expensive. And I think that
spending a lot of money and not getting results and being frustrated costs a lot more than
the actual cost of doing a surgical procedure. I think that if you can’t afford it now
and you can’t get financing, then hold off and wait until you have the necessary amount
in order to get the procedure that will most likely be successful.
I would recommend that you meet with qualified, experienced cosmetic surgeons. Meet with doctors
who perform surgery as well as offer these other procedures. In my practice, we have
lasers, we have all the same things that are offered in medispas. But in our practice,
these are tools that are used when appropriate and we are not pushing people to do things
that are shortcuts because it’s different when a physician is going to offer a solution
and is concerned about providing you the best solution rather than a medispa or something
comparable where they try to sell more than maintain a long-term relationship and do the
right thing. This is editorializing but it has certainly been my experience as a professional.
So I hope that was helpful, I wish you the best of luck and thank you for your question.