Eyelid Surgery (Blepharoplasty)

Upper and lower eyelid surgery (blepharoplasty) to remove excess skin, muscle, and fat that causes drooping upper lids and puffiness or hollowing in the lower lids. Dr. Seckel performed both surgical and laser blepharoplasty (CO2 laser lower lid technique). Available as an isolated procedure or combined with facelift or browlift. Performed at Emerson Hospital's Clough Surgical Center.

Blepharoplasty at Boston Plastic Surgery Specialists addressed the periocular changes of ageing — one of the most common concerns among facial plastic surgery patients, as the eyes are the focal point of social communication and among the first facial features to show the effects of ageing. Upper eyelid blepharoplasty removes the excess skin (dermatochalasis) that accumulates in the upper eyelid, causing a hooded appearance, obscuring the natural lid crease, and in severe cases impeding the superior visual field. The procedure involves an incision placed precisely within the natural upper lid crease (making the scar imperceptible once healed), removal of the skin and orbicularis oculi muscle excess, and conservative resection or repositioning of prolapsed orbital fat — the latter technique preserving rather than removing fat to avoid the hollow upper orbit appearance associated with excessive fat excision. Lower eyelid blepharoplasty addressed the two distinct presentations of lower lid ageing: fat prolapse (causing puffiness and bags below the eyes) and volume deflation (causing hollowing and the tear trough deformity). Dr. Seckel offered both transconjunctival lower blepharoplasty (incision inside the lid, no external scar, suitable for fat prolapse without significant skin excess) and skin-muscle flap lower blepharoplasty (external incision below the lash line, suitable when skin excess is present). A notable clinical asset was Dr. Seckel's use of CO2 laser for lower eyelid resurfacing — applied at the time of blepharoplasty to tighten the remaining lower lid skin and address the fine crepey texture around the eyes that scalpel techniques alone cannot address. Blepharoplasty was frequently combined with facelift or brow lift (forehead lift) for patients whose periocular ageing was part of a broader mid-face and brow complex descent. The practice closed permanently in September 2023.