Lower Eyelid Surgery and Eyelid BagsTrillium Plastic Surgery

August 27th, 2013

Everyone has those mornings - you get a terrible night's sleep and feel awful the next day. You feel tired... and you look just as tired as you feel. The reasons for this are many, but one of the main giveaways happens around the eyes. Puffy or swollen eyelids almost go hand-in-hand with a terrible night's sleep.

This same thing, unfortunately, happens to all of us as we age naturally. There are a number of small "fat pockets" around the eye that act as cushioning and protection for the eye itself. In the process of natural aging, the tissue that holds this fat in place (the orbital septum) weakens and allows that fat to begin to show - this is where the "bags" under the eyes come from. As these bags get larger, it begins to cause the little dip in the cheek under the eyelids to be more pronounced - this area is known as the "tear trough". Some women (and men) can develop a pronounced tear trough at a young age - in the 20s and 30s - due to the way the facial bones are built and grow; I talk about this some in another blog post, but this is a good time to think about treating these non-surgically with fillers or injections of your own fat.

Having extra skin in the eyelids - both in the upper and lower eyelids - is another reason eyes look "tired" and "old" as time progresses. A combination of the two - fat and excess skin - is a common reason for people to need eyelid surgery.

Eyelid surgery can, many times, be performed through incisions on the inside of your eyelids, especially if no skin needs to be removed. These surgeries allow correction of both the bags and the tear trough by using the bulging lower eyelid fat to "fill in" the hollow underneath them. If there is extra skin left over after this is done, a small "pinch" of skin can be removed afterwards - but this is not always necessary.

Lower eyelid surgery (or lower blepharoplasty) at our Knoxville Plastic Surgery practice is a great way to get rid of those "tired" eyes and give you a more refreshed, youthful appearance.