Key points in choosing a procedure for blepharoplasty

Recently, there have been a lot of requests for blepharoplasty, and I have repeatedly explained to each patient and their families the various types of surgery, the indications for each type of surgery, and their advantages and disadvantages. I feel that there is a great deal of blindness in the choice of surgery, mainly in the following of the trend and the excessive pursuit of minimally invasive surgery, and that due to asymmetric information, the professional’s advice may not be fully understood, and that the patient may be too stubborn to regret it. In the early days of blepharoplasty, there was an operation called the pressure line method, in which a crease was pressed into the upper eyelid through the suture running through the whole upper eyelid, i.e., a double eyelid was formed, and the swelling after the operation was very serious. Nowadays, there are basically no people who use this type of surgery. The second type of surgery is called the buried thread method, using a monofilament nylon thread in the upper eyelid blepharoplasty line design at the subcutaneous and blepharoplasty fascia repeated wave rows of sutures, so that the formation of a relatively stable and firm ties, when the eyes open due to the linkage effect and the formation of double eyelids. Post-operative recovery is fast and scarring is light. The disadvantage is that the suture is easy to come loose and must be remedied by another operation, which cannot comprehensively correct eyelid problems, such as skin laxity, medial canthus, and short eye cracks, etc. Therefore, its applicability is relatively limited, and it is suitable for people who have thin eyelids that are relatively tight, and who do not need other deformities to be corrected. The third type of surgery is the incision method. As the name suggests, the upper eyelid is incised all along the blepharoplasty design line to deal with loose skin, orbicularis oculi muscle, and orbital septum fat, and then sutured and fixed to form a blepharoplasty. It is suitable for all types of people, but the disadvantage is the risk of scarring. The “three-point” double eyelid, which has become more popular in recent years, is in fact the second type of eyelid surgery, but it is more simplified, but its applicability is the same, and the blind pursuit of minimally invasive is not desirable. Another point worth emphasizing is that middle-aged people with sagging eyelids will look more energetic and younger after blepharoplasty, while younger people will look more mature after blepharoplasty. The patient should be psychologically prepared to make an objective prediction of what will happen after the surgery, and communicate with the operator before the surgery, so that he/she will know the choice of the surgery and the possible results of the surgery before the surgery is begun.