Can Cheek Lift Pull the Lower Eyelid Down?

Everything that you have said is correct and the surgeon with whom you consult will tell you that all of the complications you have mentioned can occur with a cheek lift. From the looks of your photo, it appears that you are deficient in the midface and have some bagging (psuedofat herniation) of the lower lids. Your upper lids look decent from the photo you have provided. From the photo, however, you may want to consider interventions that augment your midface area. These can be fillers, fat, and even cheek/midface implants (not my first choice but it works well for some patients with thicker skin). Other surgical interventions would be a mid-face lift in conjunction with lower eyelid surgery. This would help with the bags and hollows beneath your eyes but, can lead to lower lid ectropion and you would still require some soft tissue augmentation as you are quite thin and need some fullness to the midface area.

For unique cases where a variety of modalities could be used to treat the condition, I would suggest an in-person or virtual consultation to develop a custom and effective treatment plan. It is difficult to precisely define the best option without collecting the same information. I suggest reaching out to an expert for a consultation with surgical and non-surgical methods to get a comprehensive option. Best, Dr. Emer.

Thank you for your question. A mid-face lift, sometimes referred to as a cheek lift, can help to restore fullness to the mid-face by vertically repositioning the soft tissue of the cheek to a higher, more youthful position on the cheek bone. At the same time, lower eyelid appearance is often improved as the repositioned cheek tissue is more favorably redraped over the lower orbital rim, minimizing the unfavorable hollow appearance of the lower eye region which corresponds to the 'empty space between the eyes and cheeks' that you note. When properly performed, the cheek lift should not pull down the lower eyelid. In fact, a 2005 study found that lower eyelid tension (ability to resist being 'pulled down') was improved following mid-face lifting when performed by the transtemporal subperiosteal approach (ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16027342). A well-performed mid-face lift can be a powerful method for facial rejuvenation. Learn more about this procedure on our site. Warm regards.