Thank you for your question. You went – underwent partial incision double – Asian double eyelid
surgery. It’s now two months after surgery. You’ve submitted two photos showing the
incision line and you're concerned about the healing process. And you want to know if possibly,
any revision surgery would be necessary. Well, I can certainly help you with this question.
I’m a board certified Cosmetic Surgeon, certified by the American Board of Cosmetic
Surgery; and a fellowship-trained Oculofacial Plastic Surgeon trained through the society
– the American Society of Ophthalmic Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery. In practice in
Manhattan and Long Island for over 20 years. And Asian eyelid surgery is an area of specialty
that I – that I performed routinely. So to help you understand where you're at
in this healing process, it’s important to understand just normal wound healing. Wound
healing goes through three distinctive phases that have some overlap between phases. The
first phase is called the inflammatory phase. And this is that phase you’ll probably remember
where the eyelid was fairly swollen, the eyelid margin to the crease looks elevated and it
may had looked like the eyelid crease was too high. The places where the stitches were
placed was very red. And that’s the stage is mostly in the first week after surgery
and it’s called the inflammatory stage. And after that stage begins or overlapping
a little bit into the first month is the proliferative stage where the body is generating blood supply
and the collagen. And it’s kind of an early stage of a lot of activity to repair. And
then the next stage which is the stage you're pretty much in is called the collagen remodeling
or the wound remodeling stage. This is where the collagen that’s first disorganized becomes
organized and it flattens and softens. So the incision lines go from being thick to
flatter. So the question about at two months and looking
at the incision, when you think about it, that the wound remodeling stage which I just
described, actually can last a year to two years. Which means that it’s still early.
And as far as the visibility of this crease, it’s possible that you will always have
some kind of line because that incision was made in the skin. But it is unlikely that
you’ll see, it’ll be very obvious. You know, even someone who’s never had eyelid
surgery when their eyes are closed, you can often see just a subtle hint of a crease.
When with cosmetic eyelid surgery, you would try to create a natural crease so that it
looks like that it’s always been there. So I think that you can – you know, in your
follow-ups with your doctor, you can ask your doctor the question about the way it looks.
But when we see our patients, we have a schedule of when we see people after eyelid surgery;
it’s one week. And then within the next couple of weeks, and then one month, three
months, six months, and then twelve months. It’s done purposely to look at the stages
of healing and if there’s ever a need of any enhancement or revision, whether there
is a little bump here or there or something, we can do it at a time when it’s more stable,
unless it’s more – it’s needed – it’s something more urgent as needed. But that’s
rare, it’s really to enhance maybe the result, if it all.
So that being said, you can – you don’t have to worry about anticipating needing some
kind of revision surgery this early. From just the photographs alone, I think those
incisions look great. I think you will most likely heal well. This is not – this is
not a consultation. But at least, you know, with the photo, I can give you some guidance.
Ultimately, it’s you and your doctor and the three-dimensional examination that really
matter in this. But certainly, it does not look, in any way, unusual or atypical.
So I hope that was helpful. I wish you the best of luck and thank you for your question.