Upper Blepharoplasty (eyelid lift) surgery: cost, recovery, doc recommendations

I had this done 3 months ago in France where I live, so I don't have any recommendations but can just give a few things I learned. My eyelids sagged slowly but after menapause they were often hanging on my eyelashes. Runs in my family, even my dad had to have it done. Because so many people in my family had it, I was strangely very passive about it all, like oh we all just have to have it done and I went to a doctor considered the best so I just thought well I am in good hands - boy did I regret that after.

I had too much taken off. I am ok with it now, but I still wish a little less had been taken. They can't fix that. You can't put back skin. In extreme cases when the eye still won't close after 6 months, a specialist might do a skin graft but most won't.  Now I have the type of eyelid that has a deep crease indent, something I never had even when young. So instead of trying to restore me to how I looked, I have a new look, one I did not want. Think about if you want to restore an old look or want something new. Now if I was the type of person who wore makeup, did my hair, gussied up so to speak, it might have blended in with all the other stuff but I go completely natural and my eyes look a tad artificial. I wish the doctor had explained that to me. From what I hear, many patients are disappointed with not a big enough change so I guess doctors have to weigh that but I would have preferred LESS change even if that meant doing a touch up in 5 years. Maybe the doctor can even show you on a computer image how different eyelids will look on you.  My doctor didn't show me anything which of course I take the blame for.  The other thing is the shape of the eyelid. Look around at peoples eyelids and they usually aren't a perfect curve but with upper eyelid surgery they generally do this perfect arch which again gives it an artificial look, I think they call it a round eye look. I can catch it all the time now. You might want to ask your doctor if they can follow a more natural arch. Another reason to do a slightly under correction is if you only do the upper, you can notice that the upper eyelid looks tight but there is the normal sagging for the rest of the face, so there is a slight incongruity in the face that people catch. 

For 2 weeks I wouldn't even venture outside. I had skin, muscle and fat taken, skin only is a quicker recovery and at least 6 weeks before I felt ok. Don't plan this if you have an event you want to feel comfortable at. And I wear glasses so I can hide behind those, if I didn't I might have not gone out for 2 months! My first 2 weeks were hell, I was positive I would never be able to close my eyelids. Many people who post their recovery progress and look great after just one week so that totally freaked me out as I looked like frankenstein. I truly thought I had ruined my life.

So how do I feel now?  In a dim room, I definitely look better. Not quite like me but younger, less tired. But in regular lighting I can see the artificalness of my eyelids, it looks a tad weird but that will get better over the next year. I can see much better now. I didn't even know how much my lids blocked light and my vision. I'm a much safer driver, can see behind me better when I back out of a parking space, see to the side. I definitely would do it again but would ask for something more subtle, bring in old photos of my old natural eyelid. Good luck!!

Dr. Rona Silkiss is an opthomologist who also specializes in eyelid surgery and she is superb!! She has done both my upper and lower eyelids (surgeries were 5 years apart) and I couldn't be happier (or my eyes more natural looking!)

She has offices in Oakland as well as Walnut Creek and I would highly recommend a consultation with her!

I wrote before and forgot to also mention the eyebrow. Because he took so much skin it pulled my eyebrow down a tad. I am sure it was a miniscule amount but on the face those tiny things are noticeable and this changed the whole look of my face for a while.

He did warn me that it would happen but he did so as he read through this big list of warnings. What I would have liked is if he had applied it to me personally, because in my case, my eyebrows are about the only thing I really like still, so to loose the nice arch of my eyebrow was awful. What I should have done and what I would recommend you do is ask your doctor what would that mean to me personally, how do you see that impacting my face personally, tell him/her what you like about your face and ask how will the surgery impact it and what can be done to minimize that.

If I had pointed out that I liked my eyebrows that might have triggered him to say that then we should do an under-correction as anything tighter will pull down the eyebrow.  Or forewarn me that many women will lift the eyebrow back up with botox which I don't want to do.  I will say that my eyebrow is back up probably almost to where it was and trust me this is quite subtle so when I say it pulled it down I mean a tiny bit but you know your face so well that you'll catch everything.

Regarding recovery, I thought I would be a quick recovery because I am very healthy, don't drink or smoke but I really was rather slow. I had no pain, didn't even take a ibuprofen. The office told me to put cool clothes on my eyelids so that is what I did. They said no ice, however I think many doctors recommend ice. I also took arnica but I have no idea if that helped or not. They also didn't tell me to put any creme on but I think a creme is recommended.

Now having said all this, I hope I didn't deter you because I have a few friends who look fantabulous after their eyelid surgery, completely natural and years younger.  In both cases, you can't tell at all they had the surgery there is not a hint of artificialness and they look so much better. Both in England so can't recommend anyone for the States. Just make sure you ask a lot of questions, don't assume like I did that a highly regarded doctor will know what is best for you, look at all their work, point out the results your don't like (or bring in photos online of results you find too artificial) to show him what you don't want and photos of results you like and ask him how you can do that with your face and go over your own face in detail so you are both on the same page.