Drooping eyelids: surgical eyelid correction or plasma pen treatment?

Many people suffer from drooping eyelids and consider an eye lift. When you start looking into it, you come across terms like eye lift without surgery, plasma pen treatment or surgical eyelid correction. Which is better? What is the difference? And which procedure suits you best? To properly treat the problem of drooping eyelids, it is important to first learn about the cause of drooping eyelids. Before proceeding to treatment, preliminary research is essential. After all, it is your eyes.

Left: anatomy as a cross-section of an eye
Right: a drooping eyelid due to sagging of skin, muscle and also the septum holding back fat

Due to sagging of the septum, eye fat presses on the muscle. The eyes feel heavy and tired, so to speak. This leads to drooping eyelids. The muscles and skin are sagging. This process occurs slowly over the years. At some point, the eyelids hang heavily on the eyelashes and this can even cause you to have reduced vision. Drooping eyelids give a tired look. We often hear from patients: 'I don't feel tired. I slept well. But people say I look tired.' With a tired look, the whole of your face draws tired and that is unfortunate. The problem of droopy eyelids can be easily remedied.

Which treatment: surgical eyelid correction or plasma pen treatment?
Surgical eyelid surgery is the "gold standard" for drooping eyelids. Complaints such as a tired look and heavy eyelids can be remedied with this procedure. During the procedure, not only the skin is surgically tightened, but the underlying muscle tissue and excess fat are also removed. The sagging septum holding back the fat is also tightened. After surgery, you regain a beautiful fresh look to your eyes and the results last for more than a decade. Your recovery time varies between 7-10 days.

This is in contrast to the soft-surgery plasma pen treatment. This procedure is advised for mild sagging of the eyelids. The skin is tightened with a pen, which works on the basis of ionisation energy. In this procedure, only the skin is treated, but the underlying problem (sagging muscles and bulging fat) is not treated. The result depends on your own collagen formation and lasts for 1-2 years. Also, several sessions are often necessary to get the desired results.

Which is better?
Which treatment is best for you? To answer that question properly, a personal consultation with a doctor is important. For severe eyelid sagging, a surgical eyelid correction is the best choice. With this treatment, you really tackle the problem. You are done after one procedure and the results last for years. If you have mild eyelid sagging, plasma pen treatment is worth considering. However, it is not a substitute for a surgical eyelid correction. Simple, because you are not addressing the problem. The effect of plasma pen treatment is highly personalised and over time a surgical correction is still necessary. As a surgeon and cosmetic doctor, I share my expertise in this area. Do you have any questions or would you like personal advice? Then you are most welcome at Skin+Surgery.