Lidlift Kenneth D. Steinsapir, M.D.
Cosmetic, Facial & Eye Plastic Surgery

I think my upper eyelid creases were made too high. Is there anything that can be done to help this?

The surgeon sets the height of the upper eyelid crease. Unfortunately, many surgeons fail to understand that they are making their incision too high above the eyelashes, often 10 or more millimeters above the eyelashes. As the incision heals, it tends to creep up another one or two millimeters. This means that ultimately the upper eyelid crease will heal at 11-14 millimeters above the eyelashes. This creates a very high crease and contributes to the hollow appearance in the upper eyelid. Before we criticize other surgeons, please understand that many text books of plastic surgery and journal articles on this subject also pass on the erroneous information that the surgical crease should be made this high. Dr. Steinsapir advocates making creases much lower and typically marks the upper eyelid incision about 6.5 to 7.5 millimeters above an eyelid margin. It is relatively straightforward to raise a crease but very difficult (almost impossible) to predictably lower an upper eyelid crease. The best cure is avoiding the surgeon who plans on placing the blepharoplasty crease incision too high. You can discern this by looking at the before and after pictures. If every one of the after pictures demonstrates that the upper eyelid fold is gone, you should seriously consider finding a different office.