dear dr seckel i am writing to you to gain your opinion about areas of my appearance i am unhappy with. first, i have some darkness/hollowing below my eyes. also, some fine wrinkling above. second, i had a chin implant operation a few years ago. although i like the augmentation provided, there is some scarring/discoloration around my chin/jaw area. Please find attached photos to try and illustrate. Are there procedures available to provide an improvement? I look forward to hearing from you. kind regards, Toni
Dear Toni,
Because I have not examined you personally I cannot give specific recommendations. I am happy to express my opinions about the general issues you raise.
I have written many blogs about eyelid rejuvenation, blepharoplasty, eyelid wrinkles, dark circles under the eyes and eyelid bags and you may want to check the archives of my previous blogs.
Generally speaking blepharoplasty, which I perform with a laser, can help remove excess wrinkled skin from the upper eyelids, but wrinkled skin that is left behind after the operation requires some form of skin exfoliation or a laser peel such as laser resurfacing or MicrolaserPeel® or ActiveFX laser eyelid peel for effective wrinkle removal of eyelid skin. Newer laser skin rejuvenation techniques such as Lasergenesis®, Photo facial, Aluma® FACES® and others can help wrinkle removal but these techniques require multiple treatments and months to see a result. Wrinkle removal by these latter non-ablative laser techniques is not as good as that achieved with laser eyelid peel or laser resurfacing, which is the “gold standard”.
Blepharoplasty alone will not correct dark circles and hollowness under the eyes. I use a technique called transconjunctival blepharoplasty with arcus marginalis release to correct dark circles. Correction of hollowness around the eyes or hollow eyes usually requires fat transplantation or fat grafting for correction.
These are complex eyelid surgery techniques and laser skin rejuvenation techniques and I urge you to seek consultation with a board certified plastic surgeon who is very experienced in eyelid surgery for advice.
The photos you sent were not clear but I did see a slight depression, which I think, is the outline of the chin implant. If you are happy with the augmentation as you state, then I would leave it alone.
I hope this helps. For further information on laser skin rejuvenation, eyelid rejuvenation and non-surgical facial rejuvenation read Save Your Face or contact me.
Boston, Massachusetts