When you speak with someone, you will generally look at one of two areas: the eyes and the lips. However, the effects of time and gravity can cause eyelids to become droopy or wrinkly, while lips can sag or appear less full. With simple procedures like blepharoplasty or lip enhancement, you can help your face get its youthful, alert appearance back.

Eyelid Surgery (Blepharoplasty)

The eyes are the most expressive feature of one's face. One of the first signs of facial aging may be droopiness of the upper eyelids or lateral eyebrow area (excessive wrinkling of the skin, puffiness or fatty bags of the upper or lower eyelids, and generalized sad or tired appearance). These features are more commonly seen when one approaches the late thirties to early forties and a correction can give a youthful, fresher and more rested appearance.

Many of these signs may be caused by other factors in addition to aging. Excessive sunlight exposure, poor nutrition or health, excessive alcohol intake, smoking or drug use, hormone imbalance, etc., are among these. Many of these signs may be hereditary or familial. Men usually inherit eyelid characteristics from the mother's side of the family and women from the father's side.

Often eyelid surgery can be performed in conjunction with a forehead or brow lift which will elevate the center or outer portion of the eyebrows. In addition, this can be performed in conjunction with facelifts, cheek implants, facial sculpturing, chemical peels, etc.

Sometimes the excessive skin of the upper eyelid area may be sufficient to cause obstruction of the visual fields. We usually recommend that our patient obtain an evaluation from an eye physician. If patients expect possible insurance reimbursements, questions concerning insurance application or reimbursement are often based on that evaluation.

Eyelid surgery has been performed successfully by us for many years with excellent results. Our goal is to create a more youthful, natural eyelid appearance while maintaining one's natural expression.

Lip Enhancement and Verafil Saline Implants for Lips

Wrinkles, acne scars, the desire for fuller cheeks, lips and chin, and correction of depressed areas after tumor removal or trauma, continue to stimulate innovative work. The field of plastic surgery is still searching for the ideal "filler material." For many years collagen & newer fillers has been of benefit in these areas and has worked well but its duration is limited (six months) and requires re-injecting once, twice or more per year. The utilization of one's own liquefied fat has re-emerged as an option over the last couple of years. The fat is removed through a fine needle-syringe aspiration technique from the stomach wall, buttock, hip or inner knee areas, then injected into the lip areas, acne or scar depressions, wrinkles hands, etc. It can also be used to add fullness to one's cheek bones or chin. We would like to stress it is not recommended for the breast areas as it can later manifest calcifications which may be suspicious on mammograms.

There is other work being performed on the use of other liquefied tissues of the body such as cartilage, dermis, etc., although this is in the clinical investigative stages.

How long will it last?

Fat seems to be ideal with the exception of its somewhat unpredictable resorption rate. Approximately fifty percent of the injected fat will resorb over four to six weeks. The remainder may stay stable for several months or may continue to slowly resorb up to a year. At least a 25% improvement is felt to be stable. Many patients maintain an improvement for up to a couple of years but, again, the exact predictability of resorption is really based on one's anatomy and physiology. Sometimes an improvement lasts longer after several injections.

Is there a concern about allergic reactions using fat?

No. It is your own tissue.