How Long Does the Improvement
from Blepharoplasty Last

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Everyone has heard about the unlucky patient who undergoes a face lift and experiences a wonderful result only to sag all the way back to his or her starting point within a couple of years. It is only natural, then, to wonder how long the improvement from another sort of lift -- an "eyelid lift" -- should be expected to last. In contrast to a face lift (in which surgery is directed primarily against the gravitational effects of aging by reinforcing and lifting sagging tissues), not much is truly "lifted" in a so-called "eyelid lift". The term is unintentionally misleading and used only to draw an analogy between the well-known cosmetic operation used on an aging face and the primary cosmetic procedure used on the eyelids. "Blepharoplasty" is the better term. Blepharoplasty differs from face and body lifts in several important ways: • Blepharoplasty is directed more against the influence of heredity on the eyelids than against the effects of gravity. The main determinant of eyelid "sagging" and "bulging" is not so much g-forces as it is a loss of tissue elasticity that comes hard-wired into your genes and then expresses itself during the late thirties and early forties. The surgery to restore an eyelid to its normal contour is, therefore, not so much of a losing battle against the immutable laws of Newtonian physics. • Tissues placed under tension will invariably stretch, a trait that makes many reconstructive operations possible. While a face lift does indeed place tissues under some tension, a well-done blepharoplasty should not. One of the main determinants of "recurrence" is thus avoided . . .

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