Eyelid Surgery: Stories

Sorry you are also dealing with hollow orbital area as I am. I also am experiencing the eyes sunken in my skull orbital sockets...as I now know is a result of removing the fat pads around the eyes. My questions are 1). Why are plastic surgeons continuing to suggest this surgery when they know it leads to a hollow orbital area that is not aesthetically pleasing, to say the least & 2). How can they not tell clients the long term ramifications of this surgery..what happened to 'first, do no harm.'

I did the same procedure (lower transconjunctival bleph) a few years ago with the same predictable results. Sunken lower lids and a now exposed orbital rim make me look guant and hard. I then jumped into the revision game and nearly destroyed my face. First it was FT to the eyes with Dr Berman. Well, all the FG doc did was FG along the orbital rims which only exacerbated the original issue. I had these humongous cheeks and VERY sunken eyes. TG it mostly absorbed after a good 2 years. I also did the filler under my eyes a year later with Dr Hoenig. Although, not as bad as the FT it came with it's own set of problems. Lumps, tinting, and migration of the filler right down to the upper cheeks which again just exacerbated my original issue. Nothing unusual if you understand the anatomy of the eye orbit. I had a freind do the pearl grafting procedure with Dr Meronk. He had some issues but it did fix the hollowness at least and made him look much healthier. Even a little amount of fat in that area can change your look for better or worse.

It seemed that none of the plastic surgeons can fix this problem though they always promise a beautiful picture ahead before the surgery. I sent the picture of my sunken eyes to my surgeon in Hong Kong as I had my eyes done in November, 2012 and now it is May, 2013. I would not spend any more money and instead I take it as a good lesson. I watched the TV show the other day and noticed how fake it is to have so many plastic surgeries done on Wayne Newton who is almost 80 by now. I bet his plastic surgeons are the best and so as Donald Trump and Paul McCartney from the mens' perspective. Having a plastic surgery done is like betting or going to court, there is always a downside of it but they would not tell you the truth because they want us to pay them have a good life. My advice is to forget about it and do not get obsessed with scars that left behind. People would not tell us how we look and it is us who know what we did to us.

I'm just about at the point you speak of. Not that I can forget about my eye results but I realize there's nothing I'm going to be able to do to fix it so why obsess about it forever? I intuitively know that fillers won't work and I trust no one to do another surgery. You are right about some of the male celebrities now looking fake. And even some celebrities have had really BAD results too(Micky Roarke). I used to focus on the females who looked so good after I KNEW they had their eyes done, among other things. They have no hollowness or indentations and dark circles. They look seamlessly younger under their eyes. That's what I thought I was doing. I didn't realize that what they had(say, The Saks treatment) was any different from what I thought I was going to have, which feels like I got the Dollar Store treatment. Lately, I've decided to work on other things like facial contouring exercises. It really seems to be helping my facial sagging and I'm doing it myself! Lesson learned and I'm moving on. We just need to forgive and love ourselves and realize we are beautiful regardless.

I guess one has to know the industry really well to get an excellent surgeon. There are over 40 surgeons in Hong Kong and mine was very senior as he graduated from Jafferson University and started to practice in the early 70's. The others are graduated from UK. The trouble is when one has a good surgeon, one would not share the secret with us and we as the layman trying very hard to look for the surgeon and the majority are waiting to collect the money from us and know very little about lower blepharoplasty. In the US, the problem gets more complicated as if one resides in the east coast and a good surgeon is in the west coast, would one travel all the way to have the surgery done in west coast? I believe there are three good surgeons out of 100 since plastic surgery for cosmetic is different than facial reconstruction and unfortunately, once we are inside the operation room, we were treated like poultry in the farm, They simply took all the fat from our eyes because they are so getting used to not to mention they are heartless.

Sounds like we (jammer72, normanfancy) think allot the same and probably at about the same stage of recovery. I had to learn the HARD way though. I just wish I had that "intuition" that Jammer speaks of. I was just too damn trusting back then and believed too much of the BS that I heard from these guys. I like Realself but their sure seems to be allot of false hope being sold by guys who aren't nearly scrutenized enough. It's more fantasy land then actual medicine. Jammer, I go to the gym and work on my health and well being now. Something I should've done before I looked at plastic surgery as an answer. Your right about the muscles playing a key role in our faces. Our problems stemmed from volume loss and/or muscle slackness. What your doing may not be an overnight fix but nothing worth while ever is. I always say to my friend. Look at the cause…not the effect as the problem. Most plastic surgery just deals with the effect. Normanfancy, I think that far too many get into Plastic Surgery for all the wrong reasons. Like you say they want that Beverly Hills life and that's a life that's not cheap. Money complicates doing the right thing unfortuently. They make terrific salesman but that's about it. Of coarse that's the dangerous part for us. You have to be able to see through it. I too am shocked at how little most of these guys know about lower blephs. There's so many simple ways to avoid problems but they just put the blinders on and it's full steam ahead. I just wish I had found some docs who could be honest with me just once. Of coarse I didn't as we all can probably attest to. I ended up spending 3x the original cost of the bleph with fixes. I also have a friend that ended up spending almost 7 x the original lower bleph cost with fixes and is now very unhappy. Not to mention the extra emotional and physical tole it takes on you. That's years you'll never get back. I had my bleph in 2008, FT in 2009, and fillers in 2010. I'm just now starting to accept the fact that there's not much that can be done and to accept myself as I am. Logically, I tell myself to just forget about it and learn to like myself and I'm getting there. In the back of my mind I still hold out hope that one day I can do something about it. The technology unfortunetly really just doesn't exist at this moment in time. Maybe one day so who knows. Lastly, I'm hearing the others here and I won't tell you not to do it. Just be VERY careful with revisions and don't just accept the "no problem" you hear from too many of them. Rarely will they be honest about their skill level. Research it like your life depended on it and you better be talking to actual real people (with your exact issue) who did it themselves praising it up and down. Of coarse good luck with that.

Forgot you can't do paragraphs. Sorry got to remember to keep it shorter.

There are lots of quacks in this world though it takes 12 years to become a doctor. They are people who have up and down just like most of us. They might be gamblers who owes lots of debts and need our business to support their life style. It is very common to have so many victims in Thailand, Mainland China, South Korea since it is much cheaper to get it done but without any written guarantee. I had mine done in Hong Kong which was supposed to be a cilvilized commercial city but it was a scam in hindsight. He needed me to pay for his rent ( Hong Kong is the most expensive city in terms of property price, higher than Fifth Ave. NYC and Tokyo ) and his two nurses who have been working for him for over 20 years. His problem is he never reads any medicial journal about the latest cosmetic surgery and still living in the 70's. As we know, doctors, lawyers and even realtors are members of the trade union. It is very difficult to lodge a formal complaint against them whether they are in Hong Kong, Canada or in the US. I just be glad that my eyes are not blind and I did not recommend this ruthless surgeon to people I know. He would not be able to stay in business for long since this business is based on referral from his patients and I do not think he has too many happy patients for his tacky work. There is a doctor by the name of Philip Young in Bellevue who said he can fix it. Would you believe him? Google Crepey Skin and Hollow Eyes After Blepharoplasty.

Hello, sorry you are dealing with the hollow eyes also. I now see medical plastic surgery journals written as early as 1998 (that's almost ten years after I had my surgery) stating that blepharoplasty causes concavity in the peri-orbital area and I wonder why I was never told that after removing my periorbital fat that my eyeballs would sink into my skull? So, if they are aware of blepharoplasty causing hollowness and concavity, why are they not informing patients??? There is such a cavalier attitude & we are talking about a person's eyes!! I never knew what I was getting into, I just thought I would look well rested...what a joke. At least now, some PS are repositioning the fat instead of completely removing it. I pray one day there will be some safe, natural resolution to my hollow, sunken eyes but the realistic me realizes I will never have back the natural shape and contour of my eyes...regret is a terrible feeling. Thanks for listening.

Yeah, really. I too am glad that I didn't get any big health issues because of it. We all know that there are plenty of people that do. I've always wondering why so many refuse to stay current. I really think it comes down to money. They would have to get retrained and figure out how to keep their business going at the same time. Well, the answer to that is easy. Just don't think about. Put those blinders on and think about your retirement one day. Hey I'll believe anybody...with proof. I've heard quite a bit about Dr Young though. He gets talked about quite a bit on some of the boards. However, it's mostly just people like you asking about him more then anything. I like what he's doing though with fat and implants on his website. I've also watched him do FT too. He's someone that at least gets the principle of restoring faces. He doesn't remove fat but either lifts the cheeks a bit and/or uses fat to augment the eye area. Like I said before. We got into our mess because of volume loss or sagging muscle. His analogy of turning a raisen back into a grape is classic too. He's also from my neck of the woods or where I used to live anyways. I'm originally from Seattle Wa. Not exactly a reason to pick someone but what the hey. I didn't really see where he talked about fixing anyone from too much fat removed though. Funny thing on my search to find him I came across this. If you go to the bottom it's a less then steller review about him using resty for under eye hollowness. I wonder if it really makes any difference who you go to for that. At best it's a crapshoot IMO. http://www.realself.com/find/Washington/Seattle/Facial-Plastic-Surgeon/Philip-Young.

Holloweyesafterps, you got that right and I got mine in 2008. No excuse for me. Me and friend would say the same thing. We were NOT looking to be changed in any way. Just look refreshed. Yeah, because we all know that taking fat out from around your eyes is just so damn refreshing. Not. Who knows what the future holds for us though. No we will never go back to what we had. Improvement that's safe as you say is the name of the game from here on out. Btw. repositioning fat comes with it's own risks too. I know 2 people that lost all their under eye fat from doing that.

Once bitten, twice shy. I would not bother to look up any one of these quacks. I believe Piers Morgan had a good one and Arnold Schwarzenegger had a bad one. Lower eyes blepharoplasty is the most popular cosmetic surgery for men and women whose age is over 50 but unfortunately there are not that many good surgeons around to do this job right in this world. All they know is botox and silicone and still have many problems left behind.

Except in my case it's more like 4 x bitten… yeah, I'm a real glutton for punishment I guess. I'd like to say that I've finally matured into a skeptic now. I can't say I disagree with you. I used to joke to my friend that we couldn't of done any worse then if that's what we setting out to do. That's 7 doctors between us that were quacks. Some were highly praised on the boards too. I think it comes down to the point of once you mess yourself up and especially this kind of eff up your done and it's time to accept some reality. I wanted to believe the BS though and it cost me big time. Maybe like holloweyes said about a safe solution will be offered one day.

Gretchenbleph.....PM me and I will keep in touch with you.

I am so sorry to hear that you have had such a bad result. However I am not surprised. Surgeons will say whatever they think you want to hear and then do whatever they want when they do the surgery. They then of course deny that anything is wrong. Also the true facts are that no surgeon can truly predict the outcome no matter how highly regarded they appear to be. Did your surgeon offer to do anything to fix things? I ;personally have used some filler to restore some fullness. This does help, but I would definitely seek out an expert in this. Tell your surgeon you want your money back...you did not get what you paid for. DO NOT let him touch your eyes again. I agree there should be a group and there should be more expose of these bad surgeons and the reality of the high risk involved.

Hi ernurse,

My surgeon went on vacation shortly after my surgery and just recently came back. I'm going to see him in early April. I know he will offer suggestions to "improve" my result. However, I am NOT going to let him touch my eyes. I mainly want an opportunity to tell him in person how much this has devastated me.

I want to tell him how inadequate my consultation was. (How inadequate most consultations seem to be.) At the time, what he said seemed to make sense - just take out a little fat and puffiness will be reduced. He was such a charming salesman. "This procedure goes very smoothly and produces a wonderful result." Yeah, it produces a wonderful result if you forever hold your face at rest with perfect overhead lighting!!! But try smiling, laughing, being in dim light, or side lighting and the shadows on your new eye hollows will make you look like a goddamn Halloween ghoul !!!

Only NOW do I know that the fat around our eyes is an essential structural element that supports our eyelids. It is also an essential cosmetic element that provides fullness and balance to our upper face. Yet, these doctors treat it like wisdom teeth or tonsils - some superfluous anatomical feature that they can remove without consequence.

I should have been told that it was surgically impossible to "give me back my old eyes" - and that achieving a reasonable facsimile was a crapshoot at best. That removing fat would, in fact, reduce puffiness, but it would also change so many other things. That all surgery could accomplish was the exchange of one set of circumstances for a different set of circumstances - then letting me decide if the trade-off would be worth it. In my case, the puffiness was not so bad that is was worth the hollowness.

I have set up three consultations with some of the Los Angeles oculoplastic surgeons. All three consultations will happen in April. Each of these docs is an "expert injector" around the eyes. I'm hoping they say I'm a good candidate for Restylane. I think it will give me some peace of mind just to have some fullness back.

I'm also starting therapy this week. I have so much regret and I need help getting past it. I responded to a comment on my own thread: "Sunken Right Eye After Lower Transconjunctival Blepharoplasty - Northern California" where I admit that I was not in the best state of mind to undergo surgery when I did. Ultimately, I made a bad decision. But my doctor also needs to know that he played a role in my dissatisfaction.

Ernurse, please reach out to me via personal message or post on my thread if you would like to keep in touch. I would greatly appreciate your support. Every connection brings comfort during this nightmare.

This website is great, but I really feel "plastic surgery regret" is underrepresented in the world of recovery. There are recovery programs for so many other problems that cause despair - alcoholism, drug abuse, compulsive behavior, eating disorders, etc. The list goes on and on. But other than RealSelf, and a couple of other message boards, it is hard to connect with others who understand this special brand of regret and devastation. Let's be honest, people who haven't been through it really can't relate and can only offer limited support. In addition to being able to vent, we need a path of emotional recovery, maybe along the lines of a 12 step program.

Again, please keep in touch.

Best wishes - JessieR

There is one more thing that my doctor should have told me during my consultation. That the probability of asymmetry was HIGH. That it is damn near impossible to produce adequate symmetry. If he had told me that ONE FACT alone, I would have walked out the door. But he didn't. He never mentioned the possibility of asymmetry, which is what I ended up with.

My eyes weren't perfect to begin with, but the minor asymmetry was NATURAL and did not look freakish. The surgical asymmetry is really unacceptable to me.

I just hope Restylane can even it out.