People wanting younger-looking eyes sometimes opt for surgery to get the look they want. Now, though, some plastic surgeons are using a non-surgical process to get similar results.
At age 51, Virginia Astorga is ready for a change. She wants to erase the signs of aging around her eyes.
“Over time, I’ve developed those fine lines around my eyes,” Astorga said. “And I don’t want to stop laughing or smiling, so I was like ‘yeah, I want to do this.’”
Astorga turned to Austin plastic surgeon Dr. Daniel Leeman of New U Plastic Surgery. He’s using a combination of lasers and injections for what he calls “non-surgical eyelid rejuvenation.”
“With the economy nowadays, what patients are telling me is they want things that are less expensive with minimum down time,” Leeman explained.
Leeman starts with a series of injections around the eyes and the brow, using a new product recently approved by the FDA called Dysport. It’s a wrinkle relaxer similar to Botox. Forehead wrinkles and crows’ feet are the targets.
Next comes a CO2 laser. It uses a grid of tiny dots which penetrates the skin and stimulates the production of collage, creating a smoother look. Leeman even makes passes over the tender skin on the eyelids themselves.
“It’s been quite powerful,” Leeman observed. “They have minimum down time, very little swelling and redness. And it produces results that our patients are pleased with.”
The entire process takes less than an hour, and people usually go back to work in a week.
“There won’t be any incisions or any scarring to worry about,” Astorga stated. “I think your eyes make your face, you know? The brighter, the fresher they look the better.”
“You’ve heard the saying ‘the eyes are the windows to your soul?’ You just effect a little bit of change to the eyes, it changes your whole face,” Leeman said.
It costs about a thousand dollars, less than half the price of surgery.
