Cosmetic Eye Services

A quiet revolution is taking place in the world of facial cosmetic surgery.  The old view reported that over time, the structures of the face sag, there is too much skin, and we have to operate to remove and tighten.  While surgery still plays a role, the new approach looks at the whole picture and attempts to prevent aging changes by using non surgical techniques to enhance the appearance and only to use surgery carefully to complement the face.  

There are now so many options to help you retain a youthful appearance, and I am excited about bringing the latest technology and techniques to my patients.  Here is a brief overview of some common treatments.

Sunblock

Your skin ultimately is the foundation to all facial beauty and the number one problem faced by women is aging due to sun exposure.  By now, everyone knows that tanning and UV light damages the skin and causes premature aging.  In fact, being in Chicago where we have four full seasons actually makes many of our faces look younger and better than Americans tanning all year round!

My first recommendation is a daily moisturizer with SPF protection.  Be careful not to overdue tanning of the face and use hats and liberally apply sunblock when appropriate.  I tell my patients to use their favorite spas and salons to keep their facial skin in tip-top shape.
Latisse
Ophthalmologists have been using the parent medication in Latisse for over a decade and are very familiar with it.  I love what Latisse does for lashes and every single woman will have bigger thicker and darker lashes.  We check all of our patients for potential issues and discuss problems.  The best part is that there is no long term effects and you can stop at any time.  If you don't want to do this all the time, then pick a special event or holiday and start Latisse a few months before.  It's worth a try.

Botox

For women who are curious but have never had any cosmetic procedures, I recommend Botox.  Botox treatments make everyone happy.  They decrease the frown lines between the brows, relax the laugh lines arounds the eyes, and smooth out the forehead.  It is important to remember that they don’t remove wrinkles, but only help to prevent skin from folding when our facial muscles work.  People who have never had Botox often worry that their face will have no expression.  A proper Botox treatment would never do this.  In fact, one of my clients was a dancer who felt that it was critical to have nuanced facial expressions as she danced.  I carefully adjusted the dose and location of Botox so that she was overwhelmed with the final result.  It is a very safe treatment that universally improves your appearance.

Fillers

We now know that aging changes involve a loss of facial volume.  Look at how round and pudgy a baby’s face looks.  As we get older, the soft spongy material in our skin gets depleted.  As the skin loses volume, the tissues start to sag.  To combat this, aesthetic surgeons are now using dermal fillers to help retain the youthful face.  The safest fillers are made of hyaluronic acid.  Hyaluronic acid is a naturally occurring substance found in all mammals that helps to hydrate and add volume to your skin. In addition to its use as an aesthetic treatment, hyaluronic acid has also been used for more than 20 years for injection into arthritic joints to aid movement as well as for eye surgeries and wound repair. All of us have hyaluronic acid in our skin. By using only natural substances, there is a very low chance of an allergic reaction.

The treatments are fairly painless with minimal downtime and provide instant improvement in many areas of the face. Furthermore, since there is no permanent alteration, there is almost no risk of lasting problems. It is an excellent alternative to facial cosmetic surgery.

While many spas’s offer fillers by trained technicians, I have found that more advanced techniques that involve injecting around the eye are generally performed by surgeons.  The trend by eye surgeons is to help all areas around the eyes by using these materials.  

Blepharoplasty

Blepharoplasty, or commonly known as an “eyelid lift,” is a surgical procedure to remove excess skin and fat of the eyelids. With age, the facial skin will ultimately droop. Excess skin on the upper eyelid can form a ’hood’, which hangs from the upper eyelid to the point of resting on the lashes. Excess skin and fat on the lower eyelid can lead to a ’baggy’ appearance.  When Botox and fillers are not enough, then surgery is the next step.  Surgery is an excellent way to reverse these changes. It is the third most common cosmetic procedure for both men and women. Surgery is outpatient, takes about one hour, performed under mild sedation, and is successful over 90% of the time.