How Safe Are Fillers Like Restylane for Upper Eyelid Area?

Upper eyelid hollowness is a dramatically underappreciated, yet incredibly important component of aging in the eyelids. With normal aging, our upper eyelid fat pads tend to retract and expose this upper lid hollowness, those with “deep set eyes“ are especially prone, and unfortunately old-school upper eyelid surgery that is overly subtractive can artificially create this hollowness early, actually looking worse than it did before surgery - the before and after photo in the link below resulted from overly subtractive upper eyelid surgery with another surgeon, and you can see the results after revolumization of the upper lids. Correcting this hollowness can happen with fat or filler injections into very specific planes of the upper eyelid, or transposing and rearranging the upper eyelid fat pads to provide fullness, as you see in this surgeon’s view video, borrowing the excess fat to move into the areas lacking fullness!
To ensure you are receiving the highest level of care, seek out a modernly trained, new-school dermatologic surgeon, oculoplastic surgeon, facial plastic surgeon or plastic surgeon who is board certified and fellowship trained in one of these “core four” cosmetic specialties. Membership in organizations like the American Academy of Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery help to identify a highly trained surgeon.
Cameron Chesnut
#realself100 Physician

There is always a risk when injecting any product, however, certain areas of the face are at higher risk than others. I'm unsure of statistics to date, however visiting the website of the particular filler you're considering is a good place to start. In reality, the incidence of blindness and/or serious side effects are very low, but there are no guarantees either way.

It is critical that the injector have an intimate and detailed surgical knowledge of the anatomy being treated.  By respecting the anatomy of the area being treated, complications are avoided.  WIthout this detailed knowledge the risk is that the injector will inject filler intravascularly which can have an adverse effect on the circulation.  While these treatments are amazingly safe in the right hands, I am not aware of any injector, ASOPRS or not, who guarantees the safety of these treatments.  Do not have these services if you are not 100% comfortable.

Hyaluronic gel fillers can safely be injected into lower or upper eyelid and brow hollows.  The risk of vascular occlusion is extremely low, and in fact, lower than injections in the nasolabial folds.  See following link/manuscript and video. 

Fat grafting to the upper eyelids can provide a beautiful, natural and permanent result. It is the only material I would consider using in the upper eyelid area. Vuew many photos and carefully check the credentials of plastic surgeon to be certain you are in good hands.