Vampire face lift yesterday: it's resulted in significant bruising under my right eye.

Question

Can I have a bbl treatment for the bruising without it reversing the vampire facelift?

Amiya Prasad, MD · Answer

Thank you for your question. You didn’t submit a photo, but state you underwent a Vampire Facelift® procedure a day prior, and you have a significant bruise under one eye. You’re asking if you can undergo a BBL procedure to address the bruising without reversing the effects of the Vampire Facelift®.
Without a photo, it’s a little difficult to assess what  a significant bruise is, but I can give you some guidance to help you make a decision. A little background: I’m a Board-certified cosmetic surgeon and Fellowship-trained oculofacial plastic and reconstructive surgeon. I have been in practice in Manhattan and Long Island for over 20 years. I have been a significant member of the Vampire Facelift® network as a media resource when questions come up about this is extremely popular procedure. For the sake of clarity, I’ll provide information about what is a true Vampire Facelift® because the term has become so popular that a lot of doctors are using it not in t the way it’s intended, but as a generic term to describe PRP or platelet-rich plasma. 
The Vampire Facelift®as conceived by Dr. Charles Runnels and as performed by members of the network have been trained and do the procedure in a specific way, is a combination of a single syringe of a hyaluronic acid filler placed it in specific areas of the face to help restore volume. In addition, the Vampire Facelift® concept of PRP to improve quality of the skin in various areas of the face, and do it in a way so bruising is minimized and people can get back to normal life as quickly as possible, so there are a lot of nuances to that method. 
That said, you did mention this was under your eye, and as an oculoplastic surgeon, I can tell you the eyelid area is very vascular. Even in the best of hands, a single needle puncture can result in a bleed, and because the area is so vascular, you can get a significant bleed. That said, I can understand the temptation to undergo a procedure like BBL or broadband light therapy to try to clear the bruise. 
My opinion as a clinician, and as someone who has been doing this for a long time, and also owns multiple lasers, with experience with IPL or pulsed light, I’ve actually moved away from using pulse light energies therapies at this time because of alternatives I feel are more predictable. I would be concerned that the use of a thermal energy device to try to breakdown the blood maybe at the same time delivering a lot of heat into the skin in a way would not be necessarily beneficial to the skin. My concern is because eyelid skin is the thinnest skin in the body, and is very delicate, I think doing any pulsed light treatment in that area, of course you have eye protection, but what kind of outcome are we going to achieve if you add a thermal energy process and the risk that goes with it. You can get more bruising, or more issues in overheating the skin, and you may be dealing with more problems than when you started. 
The clearance of blood under the eye can take time, but it usually resolves within a week I generally tell any patient who is dealing with a bruise to wear sunblock to protect your skin from hyperpigmentation from the sun absorbed by the skin and resulting in darkening. Depending on your skin type, the relative risk varies. Add a little of hydration and you can probably see the clearance of this area go from a bruise to turning different shades of yellow, to disappearing. Whether it’s this procedure, or Botox®, or a filler injection, this is part of the reality you have to be prepared for. 
I think it’s best to ask your doctor about this, but I think you don’t necessarily have to do another procedure, particularly an energy procedure. One of the reasons I shifted from using IPL is I found that the things I want to achieve for skin rejuvenation I was doing with IPL, and other things that IPL can do such as hair removal, etc., are that specific lasers, whether ablative or non-ablative, and Q-Switch lasers are able to deliver more predictable levels of energy, with lower risk of secondary outcomes we want to minimize. 
It’s a matter of a doctor’s personal choice when it comes to these different devices, and based on experience. For the issue of a bruise under the eye, I would say as an oculofacial plastic surgeon, bruising under the eyes can go away pretty fast. I think it’s better to be conservative and not add another variable that can further risk complications in this area.I hope that was helpful, I wish you the best of luck, and thank you for your question.

Travis James, DO · Answer

Bruising after a vampire facelift is quite common and to be expected. Treatment of the bruising should not decrease the benefits of the PRP facelift as these usually work by acting on the red blood cells not the platelets that contain the growth factors. There are certain lasers that tend to be more effective than others for post procedure bruising and with the proximity to your eye should only be done with supervision of an appropriately trained physician as many lasers can damage the eye. As long as treatment is done with appropriate device and cautiously this should not effect your results.

Vampire face lift yesterday: it's resulted in significant bruising under my right eye.

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Vampire face lift yesterday: it's resulted in significant bruising under my right eye.

Answers (2)

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Everything you need to know about Vampire Facelift

Our mission is to create a world where every investment in modern beauty is Worth It.