Upper Eyelid Surgery

Upper eyelid surgery can rejuvenate puffy, sagging or tired-looking eyes by removing or redistributing excess fat, skin and muscle from the upper eyelid. Also known as upper blepharoplasty, it may be performed for purely cosmetic reasons, or to improve sight by lifting droopy eyelids out of the field of vision. The surgery aims to recreate a fresh, open and youthful appearance.

There is a wide range of possible procedures performed under local anaesthesia, sedation, or general anaesthesia. Incisions are placed either in the natural lines above the eye, providing a quickly fading scar, or inside the lid, resulting in instant invisibility.

The eyelids are among the most delicate structures in the face, composed of fine layers of soft tissue and the thinnest skin in the human body (eyelid skin being less than 1 mm thick, with sparse underlying subcutaneous fat). This relative absence of a padding fat layer predisposes to the characteristic skin laxity and fine wrinkles that appear with age.

Volume enhancing eyelid surgery (tissue-sparing blepharoplasty)

Volume-enhancing upper eyelid surgery or ‘tissue-sparing upper blepharoplasty’, is Dr Sorensen’s recommended procedure for cosmetic upper eyelid operations. Unlike traditional techniques which alter volume proportions between fat and muscle (and may have negative effects on ageing in the long term), this method reconstructs and maintains a person’s previous youthful appearance by repositioning rather than removing tissue. It is Dr Sorensen’s opinion that this approach best considers the aging process in this area and delivers results that are the most rejuvenating and long lasting.

Treatments for eyelid and periorbital hollowness

Patients with pronounced eyelid hollowness can be treated effectively through a range of techniques in which volume and fullness is restored in both the deeper and superficial layers surrounding the eye. This treatment can be combined with the volume-enhancing upper eyelid procedure for patients exhibiting both eyelid hollowness, flaccid muscle function and loose skin.

Treatments to improve on eyelid functionality

A number of specialised oculoplastic procedures are available to relieve reduced eyelid functionality, these procedures include correction of eyelid ptosis (drooping of eyelids), facial palsy, lagophthalmos (inability to close the eyelids) and periorbital asymmetries.

Upper eyelid surgery is frequently combined with lower eyelid surgery, endoscopic brow lift or fat transfer to the cheek and the outer periorbital area.

Suitable candidates for upper eyelid surgery

Of all facial surgeries, upper eyelid surgery can rejuvenate a face the most with the least amount of surgical trauma. It will cosmetically and functionally benefit any person with loose, asymmetric, hollowed or sagging eyelids, independent of age.