I respect the other opinions expressed above. However I have used the laser blepharoplasty exclusively for almost 14 years in over 2400 blepharoplasty cases and have my own opinion about the benefits which were published in my 2000 article in the plastic surgery journal:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11039385
Recent studies in Asia have also confirmed the benefits of laser blepharoplasty and in that study concluded that laser blepharoplasty was superior.
The benefits of the laser are two fold. The laser seals the blood vessels as the incision is made, I doubt that anyone would disagree that the bleeding is much less following the laser eyelid incision when compared to a scalpel incision. There just is no comparason, after the laser incision the surgical field is dry. This translates into less bleeding which means a quicker recovery for you the patient.
The second benefit of the laser blepharoiplasty is the ability to tighten and shrink the loose eyelid muscle and septum from beneath the lower eyelid through the transconjunctival (inside the eyelid) laser incision. This has meant that I have not had to make an external eyelid incision or remove lower eyelid skin on any of my 2400 cases during the past 14 years.
The external incision and skin removal weakens the lower eyelid and causes the sad eyed look or hound dog eyes after traditional blepharoplasty. In the before and after picture below of laser blepharoplasty to remove bags under eyes, no external skin incision or skin removal was done:
Finally, if there are skin wrinkles on the lower eyelid, I use a laser to do fractional laser resurfacing of the lower eyelid. This technique removes skin wrinkles and tightens the lid skin. This allows a more thorough rejuvenation of the lower eyelid skin than blepharoplasty alone. In the before and after picture of upper and lower laser blepharoplasty below, the laser was also used to resurface the lower eyelid skin.
Lasers are expensive and surgeons have to learn a new technique which is very different form scalpel blepharoplasty. The procedure requires expertise and know how. Younger residents who I have trained have adapted to the technique. in future years the laser blepharoplasty will become more commonly used.
Studies have shown that on average it takes 17 years for a new surgical procedure to become widely used. Since laser blepharoplasty was only published widely in 2000, it is still a new technique in limited use.
However the benefits are clear and documented.
