Eyelid Tightening

As we get older, drooping and wrinkling of the eyelids can be a distressing acquisition. Surgery has long been an option for dealing with this, but it is not a good approach for dealing with fine wrinkling. Generally, if one attempts to pull the skin tight enough to eliminate the fine wrinkling, especially of the lower lid, there is a significant chance that the additional tightening, that occurs as a part of healing, will produce distortion of the eyelid shape. This is known as "round eye" or "scleral show."

Non -surgical methods, including lasers, radiofrequency current and chemical peeling, have been used as alternate, and possibly safer, methods of dealing with this problem. These other approaches have their pros and cons, but most are accompanied by at least moderate down time.
The current issue of the Dermatologic Surgery Journal reports the results of people who were treated with the first version of the Fraxel Re:store laser. These individuals had 3-7 treatments of their entire faces. Their eyelids were not specifically targeted and, because eye shields were not used, significant portions of their eyelids were not treated. Nevertheless, all patients showed some eyelid tightening, with most getting better than 25% improvement. Furthermore, greater than 50% also showed widening of the aperture, the distance between the upper and lower lid margins. This gives people a more wide awake appearance.
An additional benefit of this treatment was that there was no obvious skin wounding, and no downtime. Furthermore, no side effects were observed. This combination of benefits and risk makes it very likely that the Fraxel Re:store laser will become one of the primary non-surgical tools used to deal with this vexing problem.

Gerald N. Bock MD
California Skin and Laser Center
Stockton & Lodi, CA

Comments

[Cusmetic Surgeon]

The medical term for eyelid tightening is blepharoplasty. While eyelid tightening is a procedure that will reduce drooping eyelids and can be performed on both upper and lower eyelids, it does not reduce or eliminate the fine wrinkles known as crow's feet or laugh lines.

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