Question
I’m considering an eyelid lift and am wondering if there are any eye conditions that would prevent someone from being a good candidate.
Answer
Your question is very appropriate regarding potential eye conditions that could alter the surgical plan. Many of us, as we age, find that our moisturizing glands in the eye work less effectively and there’s a tendency to have dry eye. For some patients, this problem can be severe and this usually requires that a more conservative operation be carried out but nonetheless gratifying changes can be made. If you’ve had LASIK or other refractive eye surgery, we recommend that you not have a blepharoplasty for at least six months as the LASIK surgery is affiliated with some dryness of the eye and we would not want the eyelid surgery to compound this problem. But once a period of time has passed, these patients can certainly proceed with a blepharoplasty. So, dry eye and recent ophthalmologic surgery are the two major conditions that would influence the decision regarding blepharoplasty.