Midlife Eye Surgery in Your 40s and 50s: How Can You Regain Youth?

Our clinic’s name, Ribbon Plastic Surgery, comes from Re:本, meaning “returning to the essence.”

What does that mean? Is it just about looking pretty on the outside?

In the case of the “eye surgery for people in their 40s and 50s” introduced today, this is a procedure for those who feel severe heaviness or eye strain due to sagging eyelids, so simply looking polished on the outside does not solve everything.

The human skin layer is composed, from the outside inward, of the epidermis, dermis, subcutaneous fat, fascia, and muscle layers. If these areas are not improved overall, it is impossible to return to the eyes you had in your 20s or 30s.

Of course, natural aging cannot be completely reversed, but if you establish a solid foundation, you can slow aging down, meaning you can age more slowly.

Even our doctors have been with Ribbon for well over 20 years and have now reached middle age themselves, and they say that with that much experience and know-how, they can understand the minds of middle-aged patients better.

Perhaps that is why so many middle-aged patients visit Ribbon Plastic Surgery.

In particular, with midlife eye surgery, “natural correction” is the most important thing. If you become too ambitious, the result can instead look harsh or glaring, which can feel burdensome to others, so caution is needed.

What types of midlife eye surgery are there?

As we age, sagging skin is a natural phenomenon.

Not only the epidermis and dermis, which are medically defined as skin, but also the underlying muscles loosen, causing both aesthetic and functional problems.

In particular, when the upper eyelid sags, it covers the black part of the eye, so some people in their 60s and older say they cannot see well in front of them or complain of irritation at the outer corners of the eyes.

The same applies to the lower eyelid. When you are young and your skin is firm, the “orbital fat” surrounding the eyeball stays flat because it cannot push against the skin. But when elasticity decreases and the supporting structure disappears, it can bulge out unattractively.

The procedure that improves these issues is “midlife eye surgery.”

There are two representative procedures below.

1. Upper blepharoplasty

This is a procedure that improves sagging of the upper eyelid and creates a more elastic eye shape.

Because upper blepharoplasty involves making an incision in the upper eyelid skin and removing tissue, it usually creates a double eyelid. For that reason, it is mainly recommended for people without a double eyelid, but having an existing double eyelid does not mean the procedure cannot be performed.

The problem is that if it is excessive, it can sometimes result in a very deep double eyelid. If that happens, a noticeable crease may remain when opening and closing the eyes, and in men in particular, it can give a greasy impression, so care is needed.

If you simply look for a cheap plastic surgery clinic and undergo surgery, this kind of thing can sometimes happen, so please keep this in mind carefully.

Then how should surgery be performed in such cases?

The incision itself is made just a little higher, only slightly, then only the necessary amount of skin is removed, and the procedure is finished with a buried suture method.

Many people think upper blepharoplasty must always be done with a full incision, but at Ribbon Plastic Surgery, we apply various methods based on our accumulated know-how to help prevent these problems.

2. Lower blepharoplasty

On the other hand, the procedure used when the under-eye area protrudes and looks puffy is called “lower blepharoplasty.”

Lower blepharoplasty is divided into “transconjunctival lower blepharoplasty” and “transcutaneous lower blepharoplasty,” depending on skin elasticity and the degree of wrinkles.

Transconjunctival refers to the area commonly called the conjunctiva.

If you turn the skin under the eyes inside out, you can see a slightly reddish tissue on the inside, right? A small incision is made there and the protruding fat is repositioned, which means the scar is not visible.

However, transconjunctival upper blepharoplasty is recommended only for people with a certain amount of skin elasticity and minimal wrinkles.

By contrast, transcutaneous lower blepharoplasty involves making an incision on the outside of the skin, so it can not only reposition the fat but also tighten the skin, making lifting and wrinkle coverage possible.

There is no rule that a certain age group must always undergo a specific procedure.

These days, many people take very good care of themselves, so even people in their 50s may undergo a transconjunctival incision, while those who have not cared for themselves as much may undergo a transcutaneous incision in their 40s.

This can be diagnosed more clearly after visiting the clinic and receiving a consultation with our doctors.

As such, midlife eye surgery is a procedure that requires consideration of many more complex factors. If there is not enough know-how, it can lead to unnatural results, so be sure to look carefully at experience when choosing a plastic surgery clinic.

See you in the next post. Thank you. :)