Lower blepharoplasty usually causes sunken appearance

Philip Young, MD answers: Crepey skin and hollow eyes after Blepharoplasty

I am 62, and have had lower Blepharoplasty 10 years ago. Now, my under eyes are sunken and the skin has a crepey appearance? What can be done for these?


Philip Young, MD
7 months ago

Lower eyelid blepharoplasty entails fat removal and skin removal from the lower eyelids. This is part of the reductive philosophy that has dominated surgeons, and plastic surgeons. 

An analogy is that of a grape when it loses its volume and turns into a raisin. Based on traditional approaches, a plastic surgeon would take that raisin and remove the skin of the raisin to make it into really just a smaller grape. But based on this analogy, the smaller grape would not look like the grape that it used to. This same idea applies to a person's face. 

A person loses volume as they age. When people have their tissues taken in a reductive manner, they will no longer look the same as they did when they were young. The youthful face looks the way it does because of that volume. A person may look a little better after these reductive type of procedures such as lower eyelid blepharoplasty, but not necessarily better in a younger and natural way. 

Volumizing a persons face and turning the face from a raisin back into a more youthful looking grape is the most natural way of making a person look younger in a natural way. What you can do for the sunken appearance is to bring back the volume. Fat injections is the most natural substance to use, and when applied to the lower eyelid and cheek, this procedure can make a person look a lot more natural and younger than lower blepharoplasty.

I would always recommend consulting a facial plastic and reconstructive surgeon. We specialize in the face and are the ideally the best to take care of any plastic surgery issues in the face and neck area.

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A: Removing a small amount of skin and fat injections

William Portuese, MD
7 months ago

The crepey skin on the lower lids can be excised through a subciliary incision and a small amount of skin can be pinched and removed so as to conservatively help with the wrinkles. This is usually glued with Histocryl tissue adhesive. Any hollowing under the eyes can be addressed with fat injections into the orbit to give more fullness.

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