Q: How important are the eyes in determining looks?
A: Two-thirds of people rate their eyes as their defining facial feature.

Q: Is there a preferred age for blepharoplasty?
A: Since the eyelid skin is so thin, the eyes are usually the first facial component to show deterioration. A person is ready for surgery whenever the effects of heredity and time bother him or her enough to seek improvement.

Q: How long does the operation take?
A: Since blepharoplasty is not a stock operation, times vary. As a general guideline, upper or lower eyelid surgery alone takes about 45 minutes.

Q: What about anesthesia?
A: Compared to general anesthesia, local anesthesia with sedation is associated with less bleeding, increased precision, quicker recovery, enhanced safety, and more predictability. Most people report minimal or no discomfort during the operation.

Q: Does Dr. Meronk use the laser?
A: No. Compared to a scalpel, use of a cutting laser has been associated with increased tissue damage, slower healing, more scarring, and higher costs. Claims of less bruising have not been validated by most unbiased studies.

Q: Can fat be removed by liposuction?
A: No. Doing so is unsafe because of potential injury to delicate structures.

Q: What about pain after surgery?
A: Most patients report mild aching that responds well to Tylenol and cold compresses.

Q: How bad is the swelling last?
A: Swelling peaks on the morning after surgery and mostly resolves over the next 7 to 10 days. A small amount, however, may persist for several months.

Q: How bad is the bruising?
A: Although variable, most patients experience mild to moderate discoloration that is mostly gone by ten days.

Q: Is having had LASIK a problem?
A: No, although there are some considerations regarding timing.

Q: Does having dry eyes limit my options?
A: As long as surgery is done conservatively, no.

Q: Are there effective alternatives to blepharoplasty?
A: There are adjuncts more than than alternatives. For instance, chemical peel can improve on skin texture and color. Canthopexy can reinforce loose muscles and tendons. Fat repositioning may fill in grooves and depressions.

Q: What can go wrong?
A: For learn more about risks, complications, and revision, see our full site .

Q: I'd like the result to look natural. Is that possible?
A: Many patients select Dr. Meronk for precisely this reason.

Q: How precise are the results?
A: A realistic expectation is for 70-90% improvement in the upper lids and a 60-80% improvement in the lowers. Slight asymmetry is the rule. With Asian eyelid surgery, requested crease contour and height can only be approximated.

Q: How long will the improvement last?
A: Since blepharoplasty is not a procedure designed to fight gravity, surgery usually needs to be undergone only once.

Q: Where can I see before-and-after photographs?
A: You may see hundreds of patient photos on our full site .

Q: How much does blepharoplasty cost?
A: Be aware that some offices quote only the surgeon's fee over the phone, excluding fees for operating room use, anesthesia, supplies, etc. To view our fees, visit our full site .

Q: How effective are non-surgical methods?
A: Unfortunately, minimally invasive equates with minimally effective, which may be fine in the very young. In most other patients, the level of improvement, recurring costs, and longevity of results proves disappointing.

Q: When it comes to eyelid surgery, aren't all surgeons more or less the same?
A: The average plastic surgeon performs less than 40 blepharoplasty surgeries a year (Source: ASAPS, 2005). Some perform more, but some perform hardly any.

Q: Is Dr. Meronk Board-Certified in plastic surgery?
A: Dr. Meronk is one of the less than five hundred physicians in the United States who are fellowship trained in the subspecialty of ophthalmic plastic and reconstructive surgery. Only a few of even those surgeons devote their entire practices to blepharoplasty. See Why We're Different

For more advanced information beyond the basics