Have you ever thought about getting an upper lid blepharoplasty, but you’ve been concerned about there being a visible incision or a visible scar? I’m Dr. Dominic at Elite Facial Plastic Surgery, and today I’m going to talk to you about some of the things you can do to help minimize the visibility of the incision and prevent scarring. You will see that if you have other questions about blepharoplasty, I have some content in a library that we’ve created, and you can see it in the link below.
Does a Blepharoplasty Leave Scars?
I bet you’re wondering, does a blepharoplasty leave scars? Technically, any incision is leaving a scar; however, a scar is often connotated with an incision that’s visible. The goal with any incision is to make it barely perceptible. With an upper lid blepharoplasty incision, normally you try to hide that incision in a natural crease that’s in the upper lid when you’re making that incision. In doing so, and also with suturing techniques, it can help minimize that.
Ultimately, one of the best things you can do to prevent scarring and visibility is to follow your surgeon’s instructions and also care for the site. There’s not much for you to do other than putting a small amount of peroxide and some antibiotic ointment or Aquaphor over the incision line while it’s healing.
Once the sutures come out, though, your job is to protect that incision from the sun by wearing sunscreen or wearing a hat when outdoors for excessive periods of time. You can also try things like vitamin E or Mederma to the incision itself, but normally that incision should heal up quite nicely and be barely visible once it’s fully mature at six months.
Where Are Blepharoplasty Incisions Located?
So where are blepharoplasty incisions located regarding the upper lid? The upper lid incisions are typically made in the upper lid area at a natural crease where the upper lids create a natural fold. For the lower lids, there can be an incision in the lower lids, what we call the transcutaneous approach below the lash line, or the approach I prefer is making a transconjunctival approach where you go behind the lid.
The benefit of that is that it does not make an incision on the lower lid skin, and it also helps by not interrupting the support system for the skin and helps prevent problems such as ectropion or changing the lid shape.
Techniques to Minimize Blepharoplasty Scars
Here are the techniques to help minimize your blepharoplasty scars. After your sutures come out from the upper lids, you’ll be following that incision line, you know, maybe applying some vitamin E oil. Some patients like to use a product called Mederma. In some instances, though, you may see that the incision line becomes a little bit firm, sometimes a little bit bumpy. That’s actually quite normal, and oftentimes, what I’ll have my patients start to do is massage the area. And you can do that by applying very gentle pressure over the site. It’s not a very firm, hard massage; it is very soft. However, that’s not something that I normally have my patients start doing until they’re about three or four weeks out. But before you ever consider doing anything like that, definitely talk to your surgeon about it because they’re the ones that’ll be able to guide you in the care of the incision and give you the best advice so you can get the best result possible.
The Healing Stages of Blepharoplasty Incisions
The healing stages of the upper lid blepharoplasty incision are normally going to be measured in weekly type intervals. That first week when the sutures are normally in place is the time frame while the skin is trying to essentially seal itself and you get enough healing tissue that the incision line will stay closed without the sutures on it. Normally after about a week, you start removing some of the sutures, and then normally a couple of days later, maybe as long as two weeks, they normally will all come out. From that point moving forward, the incision line is trying to mature along with the tissues below to make a tight, firm seal so that way the incision line is barely visible.
It’s during that time period that you can apply different products or moisturizers to facilitate that. From that point of those sutures coming out, that incision line is going to mature over about a six-month period. And I normally tell most patients to evaluate things at six-week intervals and be patient with it because that incision line does take that much time to heal.
