Safety and Laser Eyelid Surgery
Jan 25th, 2010 by admin
Lower eyelid Blepharoplasty is that surgical procedure that removes excess skin and fatty tissue from around the eyes and also reinforces the surrounding muscles. This very specific type of plastic surgery commences with an external surgical incision made along one of the eyelid’s natural skin creases. Until fairly recently, plastic surgeons have used surgical blades or scalpels to make these incisions, but recent technological advances have made it possible for them to use extremely precise CO2 lasers instead of the blades.
With all new technology there is a tendency to stick with the old until consumers gain confidence in the new, and blade vs. laser blepharoplasty is no exception. A comparison between the two procedures and their outcomes have shown, however, that there are generally less risks, complications and side effects in laser eyelid surgery than there is in blade Blepharoplasty.
One of the reasons why laser eyelid surgery is safer than blade eyelid surgery is that, with laser eyelid surgery, the risk of bleeding during surgery – and the blood’s obscuring the surgeon’s vision – is greatly reduced as the laser cauterizes the blood vessels even as it cuts through them. Further reasons why surgeons prefer lasers to blades include that lasers are less risky to the patient, there is little or no down time and there is no operating room anesthesia required, which means that there are no operating room fees to be paid. The length of time that a patient would take to recover from laser eyelid surgery is also significantly less than that needed for a patient to recover from blade eyelid surgery.
Despite being more efficient, the laser eyelid procedure will still take between one and three hours to complete – with the exact time it will take depending on its complexity – and the patient still has to be sedated and given a local anesthetic. Although some side effects may occur, they will not be as severe as, or last as long as, those that sometimes accompany blade eyelid surgery.
The greater precision afforded by the use of the CO2 laser is also ideal for addressing skin laxity in the crow’s feet and lower lid areas and for removing the bags under a patient’s eyes (the pseudo-herniation fat pads). Using a laser instead of a scalpel for the incisions will also greatly reduce bruising and swelling around the eye-area during the recovery period.
