Under-eye fat repositioning surgery — people often shorten it to 'under-eye surgery.'

What is this surgery actually done for?

 

Before surgery

 

If you look at the photo,

you can see bulging and hollowing beneath the eyes,

which gives a shadowed, sunken look.

People like this can look older

and give an impression of being tired.

 

The area created by protruding under-eye fat (the under-eye bag) and

the sunken-looking tear trough area

are what under-eye fat repositioning improves.

 

Structure of people whose under-eye fat is not visible

 

Structure of people whose under-eye fat is visible

 

In the cross-section illustration,

the orbital fat protrudes,

and the tear trough ligament firmly connects the bone and the skin.

The structure that wraps the front of the orbital fat, the septum,

is made of a tough membrane,

but it loosens with age,

and the orbital fat comes to protrude even more.

 

To improve this uneven structure,

under-eye fat repositioning surgery is performed.

 

 

An incision is made through the conjunctiva, on the inner side of the eyelid,

 

 

and the tissue is dissected downward in front of the septum,

the tear trough ligament is released, and the dissection continues further down.

 

 

The septum is opened,

the fat inside is brought out,

and when it is used to fill the sunken area below,

the tear trough area is filled,

and the bulging area is reduced in volume,

so that it looks flat from the outside.

 

 

After surgery, the area takes on this flattened shape.

 

Looking from the front,

 

 

the orbital fat can be divided broadly into two parts, the inner and the outer,

 

 

and the inner fat and the outer fat are moved in the direction of the arrows

to fill the hollow area.

 

Because the position of the fat is changed in this way,

it is called fat repositioning.

 

1 month after surgery

 

As a result, the area improves into this flat shape.

 

Left) Before surgery / Right) 1 month after surgery

 

If you compare the before and after, you can see the improvement.

 

As shown above, without any external incision,

fat repositioning surgery done through an incision on the inside, that is, the conjunctiva,

is called transconjunctival fat repositioning surgery.

 

Its advantage is that there is no visible scar on the outside.

However, because no skin is cut away,

wrinkles caused by loose skin are not improved.

 

So for people with bulging but wrinkle-free skin,

mainly young people in their 20s and 30s,

this transconjunctival fat repositioning surgery is usually performed,

 

while for people with wrinkled, bulging skin,

those in their 40s and 50s or older,

in order to improve the wrinkles as well,

lower eyelid surgery is performed.

 

As for what lower eyelid surgery is,

I'll explain it next time.

 

 

Sai Plastic Surgery — Phone Inquiries

Main Line: +82-2-512-4647

 

* This post was written by Dr. Kwang-rae Kang, Director of Sai Plastic Surgery, with his own text and illustrations, for the purpose of providing medical information in compliance with Article 56(1) of the Korean Medical Service Act.