Swelling, bruising, and temporary sensitivity around the eyes are most noticeable during the first 7 to 14 days. Most patients begin feeling more comfortable as early healing progresses.
What to Expect
Eyelid surgery, also known as blepharoplasty, is a surgical procedure that eliminates excess hanging skin and fat of the upper and lower eyelids. As you age throughout your 40s and 50s, the area of the face where the lower eyelid and cheek meet (lid/cheek junction) tends to show dramatic age-related changes. Your eyelids begin to stretch, and the muscles supporting them become weak.
Eyelid surgery is a highly customized procedure. To optimize every result, Dr. Spiro tailors surgical plans for each patient’s unique facial anatomy. His reputation has attracted people from more than 25 states and 17 different countries to our practice.
What It Treats
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Loose or sagging skin
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Fatty deposits
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Bags under the eyes
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Drooping lower lids
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Fine wrinkles
Eyelid Surgery Overview
Results Gallery
Eyelid Surgery Gallery
Eyelid surgery provides long-lasting results! View our eyelid surgery before- and-after photographs to see our patients’ remarkable transformations.
Where Your Vision Takes Shape
Discover a personalized plan built around your features, goals, and long-term outcomes. Your consultation is a focused, one-on-one conversation designed to bring clarity, guide decisions, and outline the most appropriate approach for you.
Many patients return to desk work and light routines within about 1 week while postponing strenuous exercise and heavy activity for approximately 2 to 3 weeks.
The eyes often appear brighter and more refreshed early in recovery, but final contour refinement continues over several weeks to months as swelling resolves.
Incisions are placed within natural eyelid contours whenever possible. Scar appearance typically continues improving for several months following surgery.
What Happens to the Eyelids During Aging?
As you age, fat around the eyeball within the eye socket becomes more pronounced, creating eye bags. Cheek tissues loosen from the upper cheek and tend to fall downward, revealing a hollowness under the eyelids.
Facial fat volume diminishes, further accentuating dark circles under the eyes, and the skin in this area tends to thin out and become loose and wrinkled. With an upper or lower blepharoplasty, Dr. Spiro can provide you with a more natural, smoother, and youthful appearance around your eyes and upper cheeks!
Who is a Good Candidate for Eyelid Surgery?
Ideal candidates for an upper blepharoplasty have excess or sagging upper eyelid skin or extra skin folds. Candidates for a lower blepharoplasty often have eyelid bags, dark circles, and hollowness that may make you look tired.
Drooping upper eyelids can be caused by stretched and sagging skin in the eyelids or by sagging eyebrows. In your consultation, Dr. Spiro can tell you whether the most effective treatment for your drooping upper eyelids is upper blepharoplasty (eyelid surgery), a brow lift, or both. In many cases, Dr. Spiro can correct what appears to be a problem with the upper eyelids by elevating your eyebrows.
Ideal candidates also:
- Are in overall good general health
- Have no severe medical conditions that can impact healing
- Have realistic expectations for their results
If you smoke, vape, or use any nicotine, cannabinoid, and/or ADHD medication, you must be willing to stop for several weeks before and after your surgery.
How to Prepare for Eyelid Surgery With Dr. Spiro
To prepare for eyelid surgery, you may need to adjust your current medications, stop smoking, and avoid taking aspirin or over-the-counter drugs that may increase bleeding or bruising. You should also arrange for someone to drive you to and from our outpatient surgical center. However, Dr. Spiro does give patients the option to stay in the hospital overnight.
What Happens During Eyelid Surgery in New Jersey?
Dr. Spiro performs eyelid surgery using general anesthesia or local anesthesia with sedation.
In upper lid blepharoplasty, he will remove and reposition only medial fat deposits and skin, keeping most eyelid volume to avoid the appearance of overdone lids. In lower eyelid blepharoplasty, Dr. Spiro removes a modest amount of excess skin through a small subciliary (below the lash line) incision.
Dr. Spiro releases fat from its attenuated membrane and spread it out to fill the hollow area below the eye bags and above the cheek. Then, he lifts the released upper cheek over the top of the newly draped fat and secure it internally. For patients who have severe cheek volume loss, he can add small amounts of filler (or fat harvested from other locations) to commingle with the other transposed fat. Each incision he makes conceals the scars within the natural eyelid structure.
Eyelid surgery typically takes between 30 minutes and an hour.
What to Expect in Recovery
Dr. Spiro and the team will give you specific instructions on how to care for yourself as you heal, medications to apply or take orally, specific concerns to look out for, and when to follow up.
After eyelid surgery, you may initially experience some swelling, bruising, irritation, discomfort, and dry eyes. For optimal results, you should apply a lubricating ointment and cold compresses as needed during the healing process. It is also vital to practice routine sun protection and use darkly tinted glasses until you finish recovering.
Most patients see results within 10 to 14 days in a brighter, more rested, and younger appearance. Those results improve over the following weeks as all residual swelling disappears.
The Artist Behind the Canvas
Dr. Spiro shares surgical insight, artistic perspective, and patient education through conversations that help patients better understand the craft behind aesthetic surgery.
The Foundation of Your Journey
Good outcomes don’t happen by chance—they’re built with purpose.
Frequently Asked Questions
The improvements made with eyelid surgery will make you look younger and more attractive for decades. It is among the longest-lasting cosmetic procedures I perform. Of course, your skin will continue to age, but these changes will begin from a younger-looking starting point.
Good skin care, including protection from the sun and healthy nutrition and exercise, can prolong your results. At Spiro Plastic Surgery, we sell medical-grade skin care products, which can also contribute to longer-lasting outcomes.
Yes. Either procedure pairs well with Botox® or dermal filler treatments to soften facial lines and wrinkles that are outside the areas improved with the surgery. You may choose to combine eyelid surgery with a brow lift and a facelift or neck lift for long-lasting, comprehensive improvements from your forehead to your collarbone.
All plastic surgery leaves scars, but I place incisions to make any resulting scars as invisible as possible. I make eyelid surgery incisions within natural skin folds and creases, or sometimes inside the eyelids.
Patient Experiences
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Reflections Series #2 | Oil Painting on Hardboard | Dr. Scott Spiro
