Postoperative Care After Double Eyelid Surgery: Precautions for a Faster Recovery

Hello,

This is Director Jang Wook, a board-certified plastic surgeon at Obje Plastic Surgery,

the standard of plastic surgery.

When talking with other people, which part do you look at the most?

I can say without hesitation that it is the eyes.

That is how much the eyes are a part that has a major influence on determining a person’s impression.

Depending on the size and line of the eyes, a person’s impression and atmosphere can change a lot. That is why, both in the past and now, I can feel that the eyes and double eyelids are the first things that people of all ages and genders pay attention to.

People often joke that “Double eyelid surgery is no longer even cosmetic surgery.”

That means it has become very common.

However, when I consult with patients, there are many who complain of side effects due to incorrect surgical methods or consider revision surgery because they are not satisfied with the shape of their eyes after surgery.

Since this is a procedure that does not involve inserting an implant, many people may think the difficulty and barrier to entry are low. However, precautions regarding symptoms that may appear after double eyelid surgery are absolutely necessary.

Today, focusing on the questions that patients ask most often, I have prepared this post mainly around the most common symptoms in order to help ease some of your concerns about double eyelid surgery.

✓ How much swelling will there be after surgery?

✓ Will there be severe bruising?

✓ I’m worried the scar will remain for a long time

If you have concerns like the above, I think it will definitely help your recovery if you read this article before surgery.

How many days does swelling take to go down?

First of all, swelling is one of the symptoms that inevitably occurs after surgery.

In general, in the case of non-incisional double eyelid surgery, the swelling mostly subsides within a few weeks, and compared with incisional double eyelid surgery, the swelling is much less.

Non-incisional double eyelid surgery involves making only a few holes and passing threads through them, so it causes almost no damage to the deeper tissue, which allows the swelling to go down quickly.

By contrast, in incisional double eyelid surgery, even if care is taken to minimize damage as much as possible, the deeper tissue will naturally be stimulated.

The tissue that has been stimulated resists external irritation, and various reactions occur inside the tissue as it tries to return to its original state.

These reactions appear as swelling.

In fact, the first thing patients ask me is how many days it takes for the swelling to go down.

Because the rate at which swelling subsides varies from person to person, it is very difficult to explain it uniformly as “it goes down within X days.”

For some people, swelling can last for about 6 months or more.

Still, swelling will eventually go down, so I hope you won’t become too stressed about it. If you want to reduce swelling more quickly, light exercise or a half-body bath is known to help, so please keep that in mind.

Do you get a lot of bruising?

Bruising does not actually last as long as swelling, but from the outside, bruising can be more noticeable than swelling.

Some people do not bruise at all, while others bruise severely even from the anesthesia injection.

However, even if bruising occurs, it usually disappears within 2–3 weeks at the latest, so I tell patients not to worry too much about it either.

It feels like something is caught in my eye, and it’s a bit uncomfortable

Sometimes people say, “It feels like the stitches are caught in my eye.”

In reality, the possibility of the thread protruding is very low.

The sensation of a foreign body in the eye may be because the tissue has been pulled during surgery and feels uncomfortable, or because dry eye has temporarily worsened a little. It can also appear due to conjunctival swelling.

If these symptoms are continuing, I recommend first trying eye drops, artificial tears, or eye ointment.

If severe redness continues for a long time, it may actually mean the eye is being irritated, or it could be a sign of infection such as conjunctivitis. In that case, please visit the hospital and be sure to have it checked.

My skin is becoming bumpy... Will that be okay?

Double eyelid surgery, both non-incisional and incisional, is a process that artificially creates a wound on the skin.

When a wound occurs, it goes through a healing process that lasts about 6 months.

In other words, because the wound-healing process is continuing for about 6 months, if symptoms such as bumpy skin or redness appear, please try to think calmly, “This means my body is naturally healing properly.”

I have explained the concerns that people preparing for double eyelid surgery worry about most often.

Do you feel somewhat less anxious now?

At our clinic, we perform eye surgery with a natural and ideal design, considering not only the shape of the eyes that the patient wants, but also the overall balance of the face.

In addition, we continue to communicate with patients until the end regarding care after double eyelid surgery.

Eye surgery is about choosing the ideal design and method by considering not only each individual’s eye size, shape, line, pupil size, and eyebrows, but also the overall harmony of the face, which is above all else important.

Therefore, please carefully check whether it is a place that provides 1:1 customized design while considering all complex factors together, and whether it can provide thorough aftercare for the symptoms that appear after double eyelid surgery.

Please visit in person and receive a consultation.