6th Mar 2024
What is a blepharoplasty?
Blepharoplasty is a medical procedure that fixes saggy eyelids and may include the elimination of excess skin, muscle, and fat. As you age, your eyelids can stretch. Thus, overabundant fat might assemble above and underneath your eyelids, causing hanging eyebrows, sagging upper lids and bags under your eyes.
The sagging skin can make you look older. The drooping skin around your eyes can impact your side vision (peripheral vision), particularly the upper and external parts of your field of vision. Blepharoplasty can lessen or remove these vision issues and help your eyes to seem more youthful and alert.
What is an Ultherapy brow lift?
Our foreheads act to outline our upper face. As we age, the skin around our temples loses its underlying support because of a steady loss of collagen, proteins and tissues. This can make our eyebrows sink with age, making our eyelids look drained and saggy. By tenderly lifting the forehead, we revive and 'open up' tired, hooded eyes for a more invigorated and appealing look.
Ultherapy uses a remarkable ultrasound technology to stimulate and regrow collagen and elastin within a targeted area. When collagen and elastin have been established, they will lift the hooded eyelids to give the eyebrow an invigorated and energetic look.
The Ultherapy brow lift attempts to lift the top eyelid, using modern and non-invasive ultrasound technology. This Ultherapy technique lifts the sagging skin on the temple and brow. This carefully raises the top eyelid while keeping it looking natural. Treatment results typically last 12 months.
What treatment will be best for you?
Your surgeon will look at a number of factors. If your upper eyelids hang over beyond your eye corner, you will probably benefit from brow lift surgery.
The surgeon will then assess your brow profile; if your brows are flat or their outer end is lower than their middle, you would also benefit from a brow lift or temporal lift /hyperlink, which would help rejuvenate the arch of your brows.
Patients, who benefit most from a brow lift are those whose forehead has dropped over time, resulting in a flattening of the eyebrows, a sagging effect and sometimes the upper eyelids hanging over the eyes. A brow lift will help address these issues. It will also help with deep wrinkles on your brow area and the forehead. Old photographs of yourself may highlight that the position of your eyebrows has changed over time, you may be suitable for this procedure.
A candidate for blepharoplasty will have sagging, excess skin in the upper and/or lower eyelids, often including excess fat. With age, you may be experiencing a dropping of your upper eyelids, to the point where they partially cover your eyes and restrict your vision. Another effect of ageing is the accumulation of fat pockets under your eyes, resulting in eye bags. These conditions can be reduced or eliminated with a blepharoplasty.
This treatment is less effective than surgery, lasting aproximately 12 months. However, if you are looking for a less invasive alternative then this might be the best option. It is also a treatment that can take less than a few hours and there is no downtime. An Ultherapy brow lift will certainly lift drooping eyelids and give a more refreshed eye area. It will not however give you the same refreshed look that an upper eyelid removal or lower eye bag removal can achieve and it is not long lasting like a blepharoplasy procedure.
Which treatment will maintain a better result over time?
Ultherapy: An Ultherapy brow lift is a non-invasive treatment that requires no downtime. Because of this, the results gained from this treatment will last 12-18 months depending on the patient’s lifestyle and how their skin ages over time. The cost of an Ultherapy brow lift is £960.
Blepharoplasty: While the blepharoplasty will require surgery and an incision, the results will last for much longer than an Ultherapy brow lift. An Ultherapy brow lift will last on average 12-18 months. A blepharoplasty is a physical change and so the results will last 5 to 10 years depedning on yuor diet and lifestyle. The cost of a Blepharoplasty starts from £2,300.
To find out which procedure is best for you call 0204 551 4892 to arrange a consultation with one of our specialist registered eye plastic surgeons or fill in the contact form.
In the consultation, your surgeon will show you before and after photos, discuss the procedures, listen to what you want to achieve and explain the recovery processand aftercare.
Find out more about our expert plastic surgeons:
Mr David Gateley GMC 2939470 MA FRCS FRCS(Plast)