As you get older, your skin becomes less elastic and gravity can cause it to sag. Skin sagging around the eyes can be ageing and affect a person’s confidence. A blepharoplasty, or eyelid surgery, is a cosmetic operation to tighten the skin and soft tissues of your eyelids, resulting in a more youthful look.

A blepharoplasty is a relatively short cosmetic procedure, taking around one hour to complete and usually performed under a local anaesthetic. A small cut is made along the natural crease of the eyelid, excess skin and fat is removed and then the cut is closed using very fine stitches. You will be able to return home shortly after the operation and are likely to experience some swelling and bruising in the days following your eyelid surgery. You will be required to return back to the clinic after 7 days to have your stitches removed and the results assessed by your oculoplastic surgeon. You should be able to return back to normal activities a week or two following the eyelid surgery and high impact exercise is not advised for the first month post surgery.

You will be able to see the final results of the eyelid surgery a few months after the operation once all swelling has gone and the wound is fully healed. It is very unlikely you will need another eyelid surgery, with results lasting for 5 to 10 years and in some cases the improvements are permanent. It is important to note that naturally the face will continue to age over time, but the effects of eyelid surgery will make you appear younger than if you had not had the procedure.

There are a number of different procedures that may be required to correct a watery eye which will be discussed with you in clinic. If you present with a watery eye we may need to syringe your tear duct. The aim is to find out whether or not you have a blockage in the tear system. In over a third of cases a watery eye is related to a blockage in the passage way between the eyelid and the nose. This passage way normally drains the tears from the eye into the nose at which point the tears pass into the throat and is known as the naso-lacrimal or tear duct.

The standard treatment for nasolacrimal duct obstruction (NLDO) is a dacryocystorhinostomy (DCR) procedure. This effectively bypasses the blockage in the tear duct by making a small hole in the bone on the side of your nose. The tears can then drain into the lacrimal sac and into the nose via newly fashioned pathway. This surgery can be performed either through a small incision on the side of the nose (external approach) or by using specialised endoscopes via the nose (endoscopic approach).

In some cases the punctum (the entrance to the tear duct) is too small. This may prevent the tears from draining which can give you a watery eye. When punctal stenosis is present we may need to enlarge your punctum by excising a small part of the tear duct. This is called a punctoplasty.