Hallo, welcome to my frequently asked questions.
Today I’m answering commonly asked question about
upper eyelid surgery.
Will losing weight influence the results
of upper blepharoplasty?
And in answering this question
I’ll talk about the anatomy of the eyelid,
and where fat in the eyelid is relevant to this question.
I will talk about measures that you can take
to ensure that you have the best possible result
from upper blepharoplasty.
My name is Dr. Julian De Silva,
and I am a London based facial, cosmetic,
and plastic surgeon.
And blepharoplasty is the commonest procedure
that I complete for patients
and I help patients with this every day.
So, does losing weight influence
the results of upper blepharoplasty?
Well, in essence no it doesn’t.
It doesn’t really affect the upper eye lid
and although there is fat in the upper eye lid,
this fat is relatively unique,
and is different to fat elsewhere in the face.
And really losing weight
will not make a significant difference
to the appearance of the upper eye lid.
It can affect your face in general
and losing weight can influence more
the features of your face in the lower eye lid,
where losing fat will be more clear.
However, it won’t directly influence the upper eyelid.
The reason why is when we look at
the anatomy of the upper eyelid, well there is often a bulge
in the inner corner of the upper eyelid
and this is due to orbital fat that is coming forward.
This orbital fat protects your eye when you are walking,
and running, and all these kind of activities.
But partly genetics, partly aging,
some of this fat can creep forward
and as it does, it can create a natural bulge
in the upper eyelid and a more tired appearance.
Certainly in upper blepharoplasty,
your surgeon will shape that underline fat,
refine it in order to ensure that this area
is smoother after the surgery.
However this orbital fat is relatively unchanged
by losing weight, so losing a large amount of weight
is unlikely to influence this.
What other factors that can influence upper blepharoplasty?
Well worth mentioning some of these,
as these will improve the results of your surgery.
Firstly smoking, well smoking influences healing
and recovery after surgery.
So, I would advise all my patients to avoid smoking
for a period of 6 weeks before and after surgery
to ensure that you have the best possible result
and fastest healing.
In addition to that avoiding thinning agents in your blood,
and the agents that thin the blood can be herbal medicines.
I give all my patients a long list of herbal
and non-herbal medicine
that are best avoided before surgery.
This can include things like fish oil,
St. John’s Worts and other kinds of vitamins.
It’s important to avoid these, in order to get
the fastest possible healing after surgery.
In addition to this,
if you have any other medical conditions
and notable ones are blood pressure, and diabetes.
It is very important that these medical conditions
are well controlled before having eyelid surgery
to ensure that you have, the least possible swelling,
least possible bruising, and fastest healing.
Things like your sugar control
and blood pressure can have a direct influence
on how the body heals after surgery.
In order to heal the fastest it's best to control these
in advance of having eyelid surgery.
Finally it’s worth mentioning
the surgical technique that is used
to complete your upper blepharoplasty
as different ways of conducting the surgery
will influence healing and the final result.
I tend to use more advanced techniques
such as Platelet Rich Plasma and growth factors
that will tend to enhance recovery and healing.
However there are different ways of doing the surgery.
And surgical techniques such as hiding the scars
in the natural crease of the eyelid,
will tend to give you a faster recovery
and potentially a better result.
So, in summary we’ve talked about
the impact of losing weight on upper eyelid surgery.
We’ve talked about the fact
that orbital fat that creates these changes
is really indirectly relevant to losing weight.
Hence losing weight will not have a
significant effect on the final result.
But we’ve also talked about measures
that you can take in order to give yourself
the best possible result.
I hope this information has been useful for you.
Thank you for watching.