Blepharoplasty – Upper

An upper blepharoplasty removes excess skin (and sometimes puffy fat) of the upper eyelids. The surgery typically leaves a small scar in the eyelid crease that is usually well-hidden.

I call this surgery ‘beginner’s facial plastic surgery’ because the procedure takes only about an hour and has almost no pain afterwards.  Most of my patients don’t need to take any pain pills. This is one of my favorite procedures to perform because it can take 10 years off a person’s appearance in a quick and easy way.

Unfortunately, like any other cosmetic surgery, it can be overdone.  If too much skin is removed, the patient may not be able to close her eyes afterwards, leading to issues with dry eyes and even damage to the cornea.

An upper blepharoplasty can also be a feminizing procedure if overdone, so if you’re a man considering this operation, make sure to ask your surgeon to be conservative.  You can always take more skin off later if you want, but it’s much harder to put it back on once it’s removed.

Kenny Rogers admitted several years ago to undergoing a botched upper blepharoplasty.  One day he showed up on American Idol looking strangely feminine. His surgeon apparently removed too much skin.

If you have so much skin on your upper eyelids that it impinges on your vision (such as making you miss traffic lights, or if it makes you feel like a window shade is coming down on your vision), then you may qualify for insurance coverage of your upper blepharoplasty.

Typically, insurance companies require at minimum verification that you are having problems with seeing in the above quadrants of vision by having testing done in an optometrist or ophthalmologist’s office.  Most good plastic surgeons are very careful to do a nice, cosmetic job in addition to simply solving the vision problem, so you can usually get the aesthetic benefits along with the medical coverage.

To learn more about Dr. Youn performing your blepharoplasty, click HERE.