Eyelid Surgery Recovery: What to Expect [Shannon O'Brien, MD, Portland]

Eva Sheie (00:00):
You're listening to Where Before Meets After. How long does the procedure take and is it something that you can do in the office?

Dr. O'Brien (00:09):
Some eyelid procedures can be done in the office. The upper eyelids are the only ones that I think are reasonable to do in the office. The lower eyelids have some different steps that are better sort of tackled while a patient's asleep. A lot of people don't want to have either procedure done in the office and so doing them under anesthesia is the better choice. But upper eyelids in the office oftentimes work out well depending on what's going on. And as far as the time, it takes about an hour and a half, hour to an hour and a half, depending on what's going on for upper eyelids and about an hour and a half plus minus for the lowers as well.

Eva Sheie (00:54):
And then how long would you have to stay home and recover before you could go back out?

Dr. O'Brien (00:59):
I have people plan on being home for a week. I put tapes on the eyelids to keep swelling down, bruising down, and to sort of keep the little ends of the stitches from moving around and tickling or getting pulled. And so those tapes, all the stitches, everything comes out after a week. And then typically people feel presentable even at a conversational distance and are ready to be back at work or out in public. Maybe not the most important speech or event of their lives within the first couple of weeks, but as far as most things in life, they can get back to, although I do hold exercise for a couple weeks.

Eva Sheie (01:39):
What would you look like immediately post-op?

Dr. O'Brien (01:42):
Right after surgery, you have tapes that literally are all the way up to the eyebrow, all the way around on the lower eyelids, down onto the cheeks. And so you don't see a lot of what's going on on the skin underneath. Some people do see some purplish bruising, especially the first couple of days with the swelling. But really once all the tapes in that first week is done, if people have taken it easy and kept their heads elevated and done a little icing and just kind of given themselves some eye rest, they don't have a lot of bruising by the end of the week.

Eva Sheie (02:15):
How do you manage pain?

Dr. O'Brien (02:17):
For pain, the vast majority of people take Tylenol only and use some ice packs and again, some eye rest. But I do send people home with a couple of pain pills. And I would say at most people take one to two doses as you just never hear people really needing very many, if any.

Eva Sheie (02:36):
Is there anything you have to do to take care of those little tiny incisions in that post-op period?

Dr. O'Brien (02:43):
The eyelid incisions heal really well. And so the main thing is to protect them from the sun, just sort of wash them gently. There's not a lot of care. The eyelid skin is thin and it heals so well that the incisions are really difficult to see even at a few weeks down the line. But by the time you're three months down the line, you're really having to look for them in most circumstances.

Eva Sheie (03:08):
How long would it take then to see your final results after an upper or lower or both?

Dr. O'Brien (03:14):
For most people at three months, they're probably pretty close, although not everybody. With all healing periods, I tell people it can take up to a year. With the eyelids, it usually is faster than other things.

Eva Sheie (03:28):
What do your patients say to you when they return and are fully healed? Is there anything that you hear them say that tells you that it went exactly as you intended it to go?

Dr. O'Brien (03:41):
People are really happy with eyelid surgery. They can see the difference. They look more youthful. Their eyes are brighter. You can see their eyes. It's amazing how much a little puffiness around the eyes kind of encroaches on it. It makes people look tired. It makes people look like they're stressed. And then all of a sudden that's gone and they look and feel great and it shows.

Eva Sheie (04:10):
Thanks for listening. I'm your host, Eva Sheie. Follow the show and submit questions for our experts at wearbeforemeetsafter.com. Where Before Meets After is a production of The Axis.