Thank you for your question.
You submitted a single photo and you're asking if you're a candidate for upper and lower
eyelid surgery.
You mentioned that you raise your eyebrows to be able to show your eyes looking brighter.
Based on the single photo, I can certainly give you some advice or guidance as to how
to think about cosmetic eyelid surgery, and understand when it’s right and if it's right
for you.
To give you a little bit about my background, I'm a Board-certified cosmetic surgeon.
I'm also a super specialist called an oculofacial plastic surgeon—this means that I first
trained in eye surgery and then I did super specialty training in plastic and reconstructive
surgery of the eyelids.
This is considered, in the world of plastic and cosmetic surgery, a super specialization.
So, when general plastic surgeons or facial plastic surgeons have complications, patients
will often seek out an oculoplastic surgeon or oculofacial plastic surgeon, because of
this unique area of training.
I've been practicing for over 20 years in Manhattan and Long Island, so I can give you
a sense of how I look at patients in determining whether or not they're candidates for upper
or lower eyelid surgery.
So to begin with, with upper eyelid surgery, which I think is a little bit more straightforward
based on your photo, you state that you raise your eyebrows to make your eyes look brighter.
Now, this is a very common maneuver, and a lot of times, people do it so much that they
actually develop deep horizontal lines in their forehead just to keep their eyebrows
raised and show off their upper eyelids.
Also, when the upper eyelids are heavy, very often people are misinterpreted as appearing
tired.
So for upper eyelids, you might want to consider cosmetic upper eyelid blepharoplasty.
Now, this is a procedure where skin is actually sculpted and removed, depending on the individual,
muscle and fat in order to create a particular shape.
This determination is usually made first during consultation, based on the doctor's knowledge
and experience, and the patient and the doctor having a sense of the final desired outcome.
A lot of times during surgery, we will see whether or not there's some fat and other
soft tissue.
This is a very artistic procedure, and the difference between good eyelid surgery and
great eyelid surgery can be millimeters, and the difference between natural looking eyelid
surgery vs obvious eyelid surgery is also millimeters.
So you can see why the obsessiveness and the specialization and artistry are such an important
combination in making the right decisions during the surgery.
For lower eyelids, we address lower eyelids for basically a common issue which is puffy
under eyebags.
Now in the photo you submitted, it doesn't appear that you have puffy under eyebags,
so unless we were to do an examination, or at least with the photos, see a side view,
or profile view with the face relaxed, or three quarter view, I would probably suggest
based on the photo alone, to not do anything about the lower eyelids, and maybe just do
something for the upper eyelids.
Again, we can make recommendations based on photos but with lower eyelids, the indications
for surgery are puffy under eye bags, redundant or excess skin, which is actually uncommon,
laxity or looseness of the lower eyelid tendons or support structure, and all of this has
to be done in balance to create a very aesthetic result.
So at this point, I think you should meet with qualified and experienced doctors who
perform cosmetic eyelid surgery and, as per my bias, people who are specialists who really
know this area.
I would even take that further, people who do a lot of cosmetic eyelid surgery.
Even within a super specialty like oculoplastic surgery, there are those who do more medical-based
procedures, more outpatient vs inpatient or hospital-based procedures, so it's important
to get to know your doctor and learn about what they do, and how much they do.
And of course, look at before and afters to get a sense of results, so you and the doctor
can be on the same page.
So I hope that was helpful and I wish you the best of luck thank you for your question.