To better understand the Blepharoplasty, firstly one needs to know the difference between cosmetic surgery and plastic surgery. Plastic and Cosmetic surgery are two different though closely related specialties and definitely these two are not same. Although both plastic and cosmetic surgery deal with improving of patients body but technically these two are not the same.
To understand the differences between Plastic and Cosmetic surgery, one need to correctly understand their definition.
- Plastic surgery is defined as a surgical specialty which involves the restoration, reconstruction, or alteration of the human body defects due to birth disorders, trauma, burns, and disease. It intends to correct dysfunctional areas of the body and reconstruct if needed.
- Cosmetic surgery is a type of plastic surgery requiring same specialty to perform but with the difference of totally being focused on enhancing the patient’s appearance. The main goals of the cosmetic surgery are to improve aesthetic appeal, symmetry and proportion.
Examples of different Plastic and Cosmetic surgeries are:
- Plastic surgery: Breast Reconstruction, Burn repair surgery, scar revision surgery, Lower extremity reconstruction, congenital defect repair etc.
- Cosmetic surgery: Breast enhancement like lift, reduction, and augmentation, facial contouring, facial rejuvenation, skin rejuvenation, body contouring etc.
Blepharoplasty is a part of facial rejuvenation in which extra skin, muscle or fat is removed from above or below the eyelids to make the person look younger and more alert. Also called eye lift or eyelid surgery, it reduces the bagginess from the lower eyelids. Cosmetic Blepharoplasty in not medically necessary and it is performed only for the purpose of improving appearance.
With the aging process, upper and lower eyelids may become droopy or baggy and such condition may reduce the attractiveness of eyes and face which makes the person look tired and older. To remove such appearance and to enhance the looks, many surgeons perform such cosmetic eye procedure which helps the person look more young and alert.
But there are some potential complications of Blepharoplasty.
- Eyelid infection
- Double vision due to problem in eye alignment
- Noticeable surgical scarring
- Numbness of the eyelids
- Under-correction i.e. not removing enough of the excessive skin
- Over-correction i.e. removing too much skin
- Temporary inability to close the eyelid completely
