I happen to see quite a few facial plastic surgery patients in San Diego who are looking to have more of a ‘finesse’ type of lower eyelid lift. These are patients that are relatively younger compared with most lower eyelid lift patients. They usually present with some degree of excess lower eyelid skin and bunching under the eyes, but typically don’t have significant ‘pseudohernation’ of the fat (often referred to as eyelid ‘bags’ by many patients).
Typical Lower Eyelid Lift Skin Pinch Surgery Candidate
The typical lower eyelid lift skin pinch patient demonstrates unwanted ridges of skin just underneath the eyelash region. As you can see in the patient example below, there does not appear to be an excessive amount of fat protruding from under the eye. For the most part the lower eyelid – cheek junction is fairly youthful still. What bothers most of these patients is the redundancy of lower eyelid skin – eyelid wrinkles that detract from an, otherwise, smooth lower eyelid contour. For instance, the white arrows and red curved line point to the area of concern in this particular blepharoplasty patient example. As you can see, she is quite youthful and takes great care of her face and skin. But she has unwanted skin folds along the lower eyelid that distract from her eyes.
Skin Pinch Surgery Eyelid Rejuvenation
A skin pinch lower eyelid lift surgery is intended to provide a more rejuvenated and rested look for the facial plastic surgery patient. As mentioned above, these patients do not have a significant amount of fat protruding out from under the eyes. Therefore, the eyelid lift surgery in this patient population can be more targeted to just the excess skin folds. Consequently, my skin pinch lower eyelid lift patients in San Diego can have their procedure under basically local anesthesia (like going to the dentist). After numbing up the lower eyelid with a novacaine-like injection, the eyelid lift is performed by making an incision under the eyelashes. As the incision extends out to the side of the eye, it is hidden in one of the normal crow’s feet lines that nearly everyone has in this area. I elevate, or lift up, the eyelid skin and remove the redundant or excess eyelid wrinkles. I then very carefully suture (stitch) the eyelid incision closed. Within 5 days, the sutures are removed in the office. Usually by 7-10 days after surgery, most skin pinch eyelid lift patients feel comfortable enough to be in the public eye with a little concealer on. As you can see in the following before and after photos, patients can have a very nice improvement in their lower eyelid appearance following a skin pinch lower blepharoplasty. In this case, you can barely even see the incision that was made. And this patient has more of an ethnic skin type, which is usually more challenging when it comes to hiding scars. So if you are bothered by unwanted lower eyelid skin folds, you might be a good candidate to undergo a skin pinch lower eyelid blepharoplasty procedure. Done under local anesthesia in the office with little downtime, this type of minimally invasive lower eyelid lift can potentially give you fantastic, natural looking eyelids.
