Understanding Ptosis & Droopy Eyelids

For the non-incisional treatments, the obvious pros are that there are no scars and when there is no cut, I would not say that the downtime is shorter, but at least you do not have to wait for the scar to fade. That is the obvious advantage. But I think the cons are a lot more because you are a lot less sure of the amount of tightening you have, a lot of times when we do non-incisional, there is a lot of estimations, so we have to estimate accurately as we can, therefore, advocate this for milder forms of ptosis.

It starts from the beginning, the older patients have a high chance of having medical problems, so we gotta make sure that they are medically healthy and are not on certain medications or blood thinners, so you want to clear that out. The second thing is older patients tend to have more looser skin and are likely to have to live with this droopy eyelid for a long period of time that plays a role in recovery.

I would say never say never. Because a lot of procedures we do now, if you think of it ten years ago, people will say that’s not really possible, now we have a lot of research, not just for plastic surgery but for any other specialities. Certainly, if we can do something that is minimally invasive, we will choose the more minimally invasive procedure but we also have to be sure that the less invasive procedure produces the same results. There is no point doing a procedure that only lasts 6 months, so that aspect of it is very important.

That’s a good question because a lot of my patients they will have either LASIK or Cataracts done or lens implant around the time of surgery, it does not affect, but the problem really is when they do eye surgery whether its LASIK or cataracts, they need to put a surgical retractor to open the eyeball big for them to do the surgery right, this retraction will worsen any ptosis you have or it may loosen any repair, So I would tell them if they have ptosis repair done, for the first one month, you can't go for LASIK, because you run the risk of having the retractor loosen up the repair,...

No. This is not something that you can feel, it’s not a traditional muscle tear or injury. Let’s say you go to a gym or doing sports, you know when you have torn your muscle because it gets very painful, ptosis is not like that, you do not have or feel a sudden acute pain, you do not feel anything snap, it’s not this sudden event but more like a cumulative injury to the tendon. So it may be many years of eye rubbing or many years contact lens wear, things like that, it’s not an acute event.

That is a good question. I would say that the number one reason people start noticing or realising something is different is photos. When they look at photos of themselves or when somebody comments on their photos, “Hey, why do you look sleepy? Are you unwell or are you tired? ” and then they realise that they actually feel fine but wonder why do they look tired or why is there an imbalance in their upper eyelids. So that is one common way to tell.

Yes, it can, that is my straight answer. Because we can create a hidden fold, now, the tricky part is "can ptosis be corrected without creating a cut or scar? " Yes, it can, but that is really for mild ptosis, where we correct with a procedure that does not involve making a cut on the skin. But for mild ptosis, unfortunately, it might not be insurance or Medisave claimable, but it can be corrected.

Thank you for your question! Blepharoptosis or ptosis for short is a medical condition where there is dropping of the upper eyelid. The resulting symptoms are visual field obstruction, lid asymmetry, lid heaviness, frontal/temporal headaches, forehead lines and so on. To answer your question on whether it is insurance claimable: it would depend on the severity of the ptosis. Mild ptosis is generally not claimable, with it needing to be moderate or severe before it is.

All the previous surgeons have given a very thorough explanation on upper eyelid ptosis as well as the possible treatments, as well as the possibility of Medisave/Insurance claim. My personal opinion is that you shouldn't worry about the "best" treatment for ptosis, but rather finding the best surgeon to operate on your ptosis. He or she should have a long track record of performing this surgery, with a whole plethora of patient photos to show you.

I am sorry to hear about your unhappy surgical experience. Eyelid surgery is a complex subject and requires a meticulous assessment as droopy eyelids has a variety of causes, needing different treatment options. In your case, based on your before photograph, it would appear that you have excess outer eyelid skin (lateral hooding), which is very common. Your eye opening size appears unaffected, which indicates you do not have true blepharoptosis (true drooping of the upper eyelid).