Dr. Sanders has completed more than 5,000 eyelid operations in his thirty-plus years as a plastic surgeon. The results that he produces for patients in the Los Angeles area are subtle, natural-looking, have very few complications, and offer a rapid return to normal activities.
Why Do People Get Eyelid Surgery?
Eyelid surgery can give you a more youthful, rested, and alert appearance with a single targeted procedure. The surgery can also serve a functional purpose if loose skin from your eyelids is getting in the way of your vision. Depending on your needs, the procedure might include:
- Revising features of your upper eyelids, your lower eyelids, or both sets of eyelids.
- Removing loose skin that’s impeding your vision.
- Reducing wrinkles with laser resurfacing.
- Repositioning fat to reduce puffiness and filling in hollow areas.
Hear What Our Patients Have To Say
Benefits of Blepharoplasty
Your eyes can have an outsized effect on the way you look. Even if you’re relatively young, wrinkles, dark circles beneath your eyes, or drooping lids can give people the impression that you’re older than your age, more tired than you feel, or less focused than you are.
Eyelid surgery can improve these aesthetic issues without changing your physical identity. Dr. Sanders’ techniques focus on restoring features to their earlier state and on conservatively addressing signs of aging and fatigue. As a result, you can expect to look like a younger and more alert version of yourself.
Blepharoplasty or Brow Lift — or Both?
Whereas eyelid surgery corrects drooping eyelids and under-eye bags, a brow lift is often used to lift a heavy or sagging brow line, deep furrows in the forehead and lines between the eyebrows. Since falling eyebrows can also affect the upper eyelids, causing them to have a “hooded” look, many people seek to correct this problem with a brow lift or a brow lift in combination with eyelid surgery. If there is drooping of the upper or lower eyelids without a sagging brow line, eyelid surgery alone may be recommended. During your personal consultation with Dr. Sanders, he will be able to suggest whether one or both of these procedures would be right for you.
Am I a Good Candidate for Blepharoplasty?
Consider upper eyelid surgery if drooping eyelids are making you look fatigued or aging your appearance, or excess skin is hooding your eyes and partially blocking your vision.
A private consultation with Dr. Sanders at his San Fernando Valley practice can help in your decision. In some cases, features other than eyelids can cause sagging skin, wrinkles, and hooding. For example, a drooping brow can magnify problems in the upper eyelids. Dr. Sanders will often combine a brow lift with eyelid surgery to improve these aesthetic concerns.
You may be a candidate for lower eyelid surgery if:
- Bags or dark circles beneath your eyes make it seem as though you’ve been up all night.
- Wrinkles in the skin below your eyes are causing you to appear older than your true age.
What Is the Recovery from Blepharoplasty Like?
Dr. Sanders will check in with you the night after your surgery to see how you’re feeling. He’ll also visit with you at the office the day after your procedure and then again one week afterward.
We include introductory treatments in our SILK medical spa at no additional charge. Most eyelid surgery patients have spa appointments between one and two weeks after their procedure to soothe their surgical sites and to speed healing. Within two weeks, you should be able to get back to normal activities.
Dr. Sanders performs his procedures in a Medicare-certified surgery center to ensure high standards of care. With eyelid surgery:
- Light sedation helps patients stay asleep and completely comfortable without the need for intubation.
- Sanders typically finishes eyelid surgery in one to two hours. He may also perform laser resurfacing to smooth away wrinkles.
- Our patients usually spend an hour in the recovery room before heading home.
Blepharoplasty Cost
We encourage you to contact our practice to discuss costs in more detail. Our team will help you make your decision about treatment by providing you with transparent pricing, answers to your questions, and a comparison of all of your options — and we’ll never pressure you to have a procedure. We are committed to giving you and all of our patients the best care possible.
The price for your eyelid surgery will depend on several factors:
- Whether you are having surgery on your upper eyelids alone, on your lower eyelids alone, or on both sets of eyelids.
- If you require a brow lift to get the type of aesthetic improvement you want.
- If you have supporting aesthetic procedures during the surgery. For example, Dr. Sanders may recommend laserbrasion to treat the fine lines and wrinkles in your lower eyelid skin.
Blepharoplasty Frequently Asked Questions
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How Can I Get Wider, Less Tired-Looking Eyes?
Eyelid surgery is an excellent way for patients to widen their eyes and help them look more alert. Before performing any surgery, Dr. Sanders will work one-on-one with each patient to determine their needs. He’ll examine the patient’s drooping skin, forehead wrinkles, and excess eyelid fat to create a plan of action. While every surgery is slightly different, techniques he might use to make the eyes look wider include:
- Removing excess skin and fat from the upper and lower eyelids, which helps the eyes appear larger.
- Tightening the skin of the forehead to raise the brows higher, which opens up the space between the eyebrow and the eyelid.
These techniques produce a very natural change and have helped thousands of patients in the los Angeles area obtain the youthful appearance they seek.
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What’s the Best Way to Quickly Recover From Eyelid Surgery?
While eyelid surgery is not a major procedure, it still involves incisions, which means patients will have some recovery time. Luckily, this recovery period is well tolerated by most patients, especially if they take the following steps to recover faster:
- Rest the eyelids by minimizing watching TV or reading. Instead, patients may listen to music or audiobooks the first few days after surgery.
- Eat healthy and nutritious foods, such as fruit, vegetables, and lean protein. Salt, fishoil, and aspirin should also be avoided, as these can cause swelling and bleeding.
- Minimize physical activity for the first two weeks.
- Keep the head elevated and apply cool compresses to the eyes four times a day for the first two weeks after surgery to reduce swelling.
- Follow all post-operative instructions, which will be specific to each patient and devised specially by Dr. Sanders to optimize recovery.
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How Can Lower Eyelid Fat Be Removed?
The techniques for removal of lower eyelid fat have dramatically improved over the past 30 years. In the past, the process involved an incision just below the eyelashes to remove excess skin, muscle, and fat, leading to problematic results for some patients. These days, Dr. Sanders uses more advanced techniques at his office to ensure every patient receives a personalized and improved experience. This includes making an incision on the inside of the lower eyelid to reduce scarring, as well as leaving more skin in place. The loose, wrinkled skin is then addressed with the use of lasers or a chemical peel to tighten instead.
Another important goal is to ensure a seamless transition from the lower eyelid to the cheek, so Dr. Sanders may slide fat from the lower eyelid into the groove between the eyelid and cheek to produce that smooth transition in his San Fernando Valley patients, depending on their facial structure.
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How Can Lower Eyelid Wrinkles Be Corrected?
Eyelid surgery can be a great way to correct lower eyelid wrinkles for patients. In most cases, wrinkles of the lower eyelid are caused by one or more of the following issues:
- Overactive muscle, when muscles of the eyelids contract and lead to creases in the skin. This can be treated with a Botox injection to relax the muscles.
- Excess skin, which creates bunches and folds of skin. This can be corrected by making an incision inside the lower eyelid to remove excess fat, and then trimming away excess skin.
- Lack of collagen in the skin, which produces crepiness in patients. This can be corrected with chemical peels or laser resurfacing to physically eliminate skin irregularities as well as stimulating the production of skin collagen.
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How Long Will My Results Last?
Lower eyelid results tend to be very durable. For your upper eyelid, results vary, but most people enjoy the benefits of upper eyelid surgery for many years.
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Is It Really Worth It?
The way your eyes look can make you appear older and affect the overall appearance of your face. By turning to eyelid surgery, you can get rid of the excess fat and skin that not only affects your appearance but might also prevent you from seeing as well as you should. For all of these reasons, eyelid surgery may be an excellent choice.
Excellence in Blepharoplasty in Encino
If you want a fresher and more youthful look around your eyes, eyelid surgery may be the solution. Dr. George Sanders has nearly four decades of experience and offers natural-looking results. For more information on eyelid surgery, please contact Dr. Sanders’ Encino office to schedule a consultation.
