Going into work every day, it’s the same old scene: People look at your eyes and
constantly ask you if you’re tired, if you got enough sleep, or if you need a vacation. If the only thing
you’re tired of is being asked these questions, perhaps it’s time to consider blepharoplasty, a procedure Dr.
Louis Bourget guarantees will revive tired-looking eyes.
A facial surgeon at
Renu Cosmetic Reconstructive
Surgery in Halifax, Dr. Bourget has been performing eyelid surgeries for 14 years, and
holds an extensive resumé of experience: After he completed his PhD in 1986, he went through an undergraduate
education in a dental program at McGill
University, a maxillofacial program at Dalhousie University, and advanced facial reconstruction
courses at the Mayo
Clinic and in Florida, Michigan, St. Louis, Vienna and Sweden. On top of his own
practice, Dr. Bourget is a member of the Bathurst Regional Hospital, where he performs surgeries on trauma
and post-trauma patients and people with serious facial deformities.
Combined with using
revolutionary technology in his practice such as computer imaging, his extensive background provides him with
a unique edge in the field of cosmetic surgery.
“I can look at bone
reconstruction and soft tissue reconstruction, which can sometimes alter each other. I can also look at the
entire face rather than changing one small thing patients want — I’ll refuse to do some surgeries if I feel
the upper lid procedure alone won’t give them the result they’re looking for,” he
says.
While many people seek
eyelid surgery to liven up their appearance and look younger, some people suffer from a visual field defect,
meaning that droopy eyelids may obstruct their vision and affect their quality of life. Though unrelated to
eyelid surgery, some people may also have been born with ptosis of the eye, meaning that one eye is not
symmetrical to the other, so Dr. Bourget can fix this simultaneously.
No matter how minor their
concern, he says anyone who seeks the surgery will notice a positive difference
“Everyone has different
reasons. [Some people] can’t drive very well because their eyelids have so much excess fat, so it’ll change
their life significantly. There are some people where it’s psychologically affecting them in that they want
to look young and alert, rather than tired or stern, so psychologically it will help them; some people just
want to be able to put makeup on their eyes, so although it’s a small difference, it often makes a big
difference,” he says.
The best candidates, Dr.
Bourget says, are not those with the best eyes per se — but those with the best eyebrow position. It is for
this reason, he notes, that some people mistakenly believe they need only eyelid
surgery.
For men, ideally, their
eyebrows should be at the level of the orbital bone (the eye socket), and a woman’s eyebrows should be a
little higher, as “they want more of an arch,” says Dr. Bourget.
He elaborates, “When you
have excess skin, you need a good brow position to get the results. Before we even think about taking out
skin through eyelid surgery, we have to make sure we get a nice shape for your
brow.”
Unlike in many
professions, the best result in Dr. Bourget’s practice is not when a regular person can tell he did a good
job — but when his work is virtually undetectable.
“The most gratifying
result is when you have instant results. You see the eyelid or eyebrows in a nice position right away. I want
my patients to come back and tell me, ‘People don’t know I had surgery, they think I got a haircut or that I
look refreshed or I got a good night’s sleep’… Others can’t tell what they’ve done, but they know they’ve
done something,” Dr. Bourget says.
With results this
discrete, blepharoplasty is sure to be a truly eye-opening experience.
HOW IT’S
DONE
Eyelid surgery refers to
two possible procedures, upper eyelid or lower eyelid surgery, though many people get
both.
When performing eyelid
surgery, Dr. Bourget uses anesthesia (local or IV) and a protector to protect the eyeball, known as the
globe, if using a laser. The skin is then separated from the thin muscle underneath, and based on the
decision made before the operation, they either take some muscle as well as skin, or take only skin,
depending on the type of eye defect.
From there, he opens the
orbital septum, a lower membrane in the eye that holds back fat. Depending on whether they find bulges in the
area closer to the nose or near the middle of the eye, that is where Dr. Bourget will remove the
fat.
Once the procedure is
complete, the patient is told to ice the area and sent home to heal, which usually takes seven to 10 days.
With the surgery complete, the care continues — Dr. Bourget practises routine patient followup care in order
to help the patient feel secure about the procedure they’ve just had done. For Dr. Bourget, post-surgery care
is just as important and necessary •
