Is There a Better Method Than Upper Eyelid Fat Grafting?

Hello. Did everyone have a good Chuseok holiday? After taking a break during the holiday and returning to daily life, how was your time with your family during the holiday? You may have enjoyed delicious food and had a happy time, but when you meet many people after a long time, it seems you inevitably end up hearing comments about how others are being evaluated. One of those things is appearance, I think. That may be because appearance is the first thing people notice when they look at someone. Of course, if you hear compliments, it feels good, but usually people tend to talk more about shortcomings than praise.

Everyone probably wants to look younger, and hearing that you look older can be upsetting. In addition, drooping eyelids, which also give the impression of looking tired, are one of the reasons many people start thinking about upper eyelid fat grafting after the Chuseok holiday. So let’s take a look at why eyelids become sunken and how to address the problem.

  First of all, the most common reason for sunken eyelids is aging.

As people get older, subcutaneous fat decreases in the body.

It would be nice if the fat only disappeared from areas where you do not want volume,

but fat is also lost in unwanted areas.

One of those areas is the upper eyelid. Because the eyes are one of the thinnest-skinned areas of the face,

they are among the first areas to show signs when aging begins.

In younger people, when this happens, the recent trend toward a thin body type means that

overly restrictive dieting often causes fat loss in the upper eyelids as well.

In addition, due to lifestyle habits such as rubbing the eyes frequently,

or because of genetic factors, upper eyelid fat loss happens often.

This sunken eyelid condition is also called enophthalmos of the eyelid,

and it not only makes you look tired and older,

but also functionally makes it harder to open the eyes, which can lead to ptosis, so correction is necessary.

 

  However, when it comes to how to correct sunken eyes,

many people may have considered upper eyelid fat grafting, upper eyelid fillers, and other methods.

In the case of upper eyelid fat grafting, because the eyes move a lot,

you may worry that the fat survival rate is low and the effect may be limited, as well as the possibility of adhesions.

And considering that the main cause in most cases is aging,

many people have social and work commitments, so the burden of the recovery period may also have been a concern.

Upper eyelid fillers do not place much burden on recovery time, but they can also have adhesion-related issues,

and if you later want another treatment or want to improve the area through a different method,

you may need a separate procedure to dissolve the filler, which can also be a concern.

For people like this, today I would like to introduce eyelid volume restoration.

Eyelid volume restoration does not involve harvesting fat from another area and injecting it, as in traditional upper eyelid fat grafting; instead, it is a technique that pulls down the fat hidden behind the eyebrow and relocates it to the sunken eyelid.

  Then you may wonder how volume can be added effectively without harvesting fat when the eyelid is already sunken due to lack of fat.

 

If you pinch above and below the eyebrow on the face, you can feel fat being grasped; this is the periorbital fat tissue.

Eyelid volume restoration works by repositioning this periorbital fat tissue to the area where the eyelid has sunken.

  Then you may be wondering why we recommend eyelid volume restoration instead of upper eyelid fat grafting.

First, eyelid volume restoration does not require fat to be harvested from another area,

so there is no need to worry about the fat survival rate.

In other words, it minimizes post-surgery hollowing.

Also, it can be improved with a single surgery without any additional procedures,

and compared with upper eyelid fat grafting, which takes about 7 days of recovery,

it takes a relatively shorter 3 to 4 days,

so it is a method that can reduce the burden for those who were worried about returning to daily life.

When talking about enophthalmos of the eyelid, I mentioned that it can lead to ptosis.

Because eyelid volume restoration can also improve ptosis,

it can be said to reduce that concern as well.

  Eyelid volume restoration uses different surgical methods depending on the degree of eyelid hollowing,

creating a natural and effective eye line. 

First, in cases where the hollowing is not severe,

only ptosis correction and anterior repositioning of the orbital fat are performed

to improve the sunken upper eyelid and create a brighter eye shape.

When the hollowing is severe, ptosis correction, orbital fat repositioning, fat grafting, and fat injection are combined,

and depending on the condition, micro fat grafting and dermal-fat grafting are also performed

to restore volume to the upper eyelid.

 

Because the eyes are the area that determine a person’s image,

the procedure should be carried out with both aesthetics and function in mind.

At our clinic, plastic surgery specialist Dr. Oh Won-seok, who is dedicated to eye surgery, personally

checks the current condition and anatomical structure through imaging to provide customized surgery, and also monitors recovery care.

If you want to hear that you look younger next holiday, get a consultation now.