Eyelid surgery

Plan on 7–10 days if you are seen on camera, and around 2 weeks if you would rather no one ask. Bruising fades faster than you would think — the giveaway is usually pink incisions, which makeup covers well by week two.

Less than most people brace for. What you feel is tightness across the lids and a dry, gritty sensation rather than sharp pain, and it is at its worst in the first two or three days, alongside the swelling and bruising. Cool compresses, keeping your head elevated and simple oral painkillers handle it for most people — the dryness and the blurring from ointment usually bother patients more than pain does. Severe or worsening pain is not part of normal healing; call us rather than wait it out.

Short sessions are usually fine from day two or three, though expect blurring and dryness at first — ointment, swelling and a reduced blink rate all work against a comfortable eye. Use the lubricating drops you are sent home with and take breaks. Most people manage a full working day on screen by the end of week two.

Done conservatively, eyelid surgery does not change your features — it removes the heaviness and shadowing that read as tired. People tend to notice that you look well, not that you have had something done.

Upper eyelid surgery typically lasts 10–15 years, and many people never have it redone. Lower lid results are generally long-lasting, though ageing continues around the area.

Eyelid surgery is a day case — you are home the same evening. Plan roughly 7 nights in Istanbul so we can see you for the suture-removal check and one further follow-up before you fly. We arrange airport transfers and a coordinator, and you talk to the surgeon before you travel, not on arrival.

We prefer you fly after the suture-removal check, from around day 7, and we ask you to wear compression socks. Cabin pressure can worsen swelling around the eyes and the surgery-plus-flight combination raises clot risk, so long-haul flights are best delayed to about 14 days.

Upper incisions hide in the natural lid crease and usually fade to a faint line. Lower incisions sit just below the lashes or inside the lid, where they are not visible from outside. Once the incisions have closed, silicone-based scar products and consistent sun protection help them fade.

Many upper blepharoplasties are done under local with light sedation, which shortens recovery. Lower lid work and combined cases more often use IV sedation or general anaesthesia for comfort — we decide together at consultation.

Yes — when hooded upper lids sag far enough to block peripheral vision or force you to strain to keep the eyes open, upper blepharoplasty can restore the field of sight and ease eye fatigue. For many patients this functional benefit matters as much as the cosmetic one.

Contact your surgeon straight away for severe or worsening pain, spreading redness, warmth or discharge around the incisions, sudden vision changes, or bleeding. These can signal infection or bleeding behind the eye and should not wait for a scheduled follow-up.

Double eyelid surgery creates a defined upper-lid crease where one is absent or faint — most often requested by East Asian patients. An incisional method gives a permanent crease; a non-incisional suture method is semi-permanent with less downtime. Whether either suits your anatomy is settled at consultation.

Botox for the dynamic lines around the eyes, radiofrequency skin tightening, fillers for select hollowing patterns and plasma-pen treatments can all improve mild concerns without surgery, but the results are temporary and more modest than blepharoplasty — for significant hooding or true bags, surgery is the more definitive answer. On the surgical side, laser-assisted incisions are sometimes used — most often for lower lids — to reduce bleeding during surgery.

Yes — a brow lift or facelift is commonly added when heaviness comes from the brow or midface rather than the lids alone, and fat grafting can address hollowing. Combining changes operative time, anaesthesia choice and price, so suitability is assessed case by case at consultation.

Adults in good general health with hooded upper lids or under-eye bags, no conditions that impair healing, and realistic expectations about the change. Nicotine works against eyelid healing, and dry eye, glaucoma or a LASIK history call for an eye exam before surgery is planned.

The main drivers are which lids are treated — upper, lower or both — the anaesthesia used, and any add-ons such as canthopexy or fat grafting. Within our €1,350 – 3,500 range, combined upper and lower cases sit at the top end. Comparing quotes abroad is harder than it looks: the average figures published by the American Society of Plastic Surgeons are the surgeon's fee only, before facility and anaesthesia, so the headline number is rarely the final bill.