Aesthetics
Eyelid surgery
Slackened eyelids can make you look tired, or narrow your field of view. Eyelid surgery creates a more awake, balanced appearance.
A more awake, open expression
The eye area shapes a face's expression more than any other part of it. When the eyes look tired or heavy, "too much skin" is rarely the whole of it: it can be excess lid skin, fat that has come forward, or a brow that sits lower — often several of them together. Which of them dominates in your case is decided by the examination, not by the first impression in the mirror.
An eyelid lift takes away what makes the lid heavy: excess skin and, where needed, a little fatty tissue, carefully measured. It does not change the shape of your eyes, it does not raise a brow, and it treats neither the texture of the skin nor dark shadows — that is what skin rejuvenation is for. A good result therefore does not look like surgery; it looks rested.
That is why we plan an aesthetically motivated lid lift as an oculoplastic procedure too: lid closure, tear film and visual field have to be right first, and appearance follows from that. Depending on the findings the path then leads to an upper or a lower lid lift — which of the two questions is yours is what the next sections settle.
So what comes first is a consultation and not a treatment: calm, in plain language and without any pressure of time. You receive a written cost estimate before you decide.
Why eyelid surgery here is an oculoplastic procedure
The eyelid is not skin. It is a precision organ: the finest of muscles open and close the eye, spread the tear film and protect the cornea. A millimetre decides how it functions, not just how it looks. That is precisely why we treat even an aesthetically motivated lid lift as oculoplastic surgery — beauty follows from function, and a good lid result is a functional result first.
The discipline grew out of microsurgery of the eye and is fundamentally different from general plastic surgery on the lid, which treats the skin. It was founded by Professor Richard Collin at Moorfields Eye Hospital in London — the surgical root of Sehklinik's scientific DNA. Over 4,000 lid operations since 1994 stand behind that experience. Every treatment is planned individually, measured carefully and matched exactly to the shape of your face.
In pronounced cases, slackened lids also narrow the field of view or cause tension in the forehead, because you are unconsciously trying to open your eyes wider. At that point the line between aesthetic and medical becomes blurred — and that is exactly what we establish with you beforehand.
Upper or lower lid: which question is yours
Most people arrive with an impression rather than a diagnosis: 'I look tired.' Which part of the eye area produces that impression is harder to work out from the outside than it appears — and the answer decides which of the two pages below is yours.
At the upper lid it is usually about skin, and about what the skin does to the eyes: excess skin settles over the lid crease, the eye looks smaller, the expression heavier. Anyone who tips their head back a little to see better, or feels a pull above the brows by the evening, is already describing the border with the functional.
At the lower lid it is rarely about skin alone. Bulging fat pads, a sunken transition towards the cheek and the tension of the lid margin all work together; that is why this procedure counts as the more demanding of the two and is planned differently. Which part accounts for what in your case shows itself at the mirror, not in a text.
And there is a third case that appears on neither treatment page: if the upper field of vision is measurably restricted, the correction is no longer an aesthetic question but a medical one — with its own assessment and its own route for costs. Less often the same follows from another finding at the lid. We draw that distinction by examination rather than by eye; the standardised visual field measurement is the clearest route to it, though not the only one. It is described on the page about hooded eyelids in the ophthalmology section.
Upper eyelid surgery
Correction of the upper lid comes into question when excess skin changes the look of the eyes. Details of that treatment are on the upper eyelid surgery page.
Lower eyelid surgery
Correction of the lower lid concerns the region beneath the eye. Details of that treatment are on the lower eyelid surgery page.
How a consultation here works
What comes first is not an operation but an examination. We assess the lid region in context: levator function, lid closure, tear film and the surface of the cornea all belong to it, because these findings help decide whether a procedure makes sense at all and how it would be planned. Measure first, discuss afterwards — which is why the consultation takes time.
Then we talk at the mirror, not over a brochure. You show us what bothers you; we say which part of it comes from the lid and which does not — including when the answer is 'the brow' and a lid lift would change little about it. What we cannot recommend, we do not recommend.
Nothing is decided on the same day. You receive a written breakdown of costs before you decide, and you take it home with you. Questions that only surface there belong before the procedure — that is what a second appointment is for.
If the examination shows a functional finding, the conversation changes direction: first comes the assessment through basic insurance, and only after that — if at all — any aesthetic part. Mixing the two into one appointment helps nobody.
Recovery time: what to plan for realistically
A lid procedure is done as a day case, but it is not invisible. Swelling and bruising are part of it, are most pronounced in the first few days and are often uneven between the two sides — that is the expected course and not a sign that something has gone wrong.
So plan for social time away rather than a lunch break. How long that is differs between the upper and the lower lid; the concrete figures, the removal of the sutures and the pauses for sport and sauna are set out on the two treatment pages.
Two things we say beforehand rather than afterwards: the result can only be judged fairly after some weeks, because residual swelling changes the impression until then. And an appointment shortly before an occasion at which you will be photographed is the commonest avoidable planning mistake.
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Medically reviewed by PD Dr. med. Andrea von Rückmann
Frequently asked questions
- You do not have to answer that before the appointment; answering it is part of the examination. What decides is not how pronounced the lids look but whether they measurably interfere: the commonest and clearest evidence is a restriction of the upper field of vision, established with a standardised measurement. Less often the functional finding comes from something else at the lid — lashes lying on the cornea, a chronic skin inflammation in the lid crease, or a true ptosis. Where one of those applies, the correction is a medical service and is assessed within ophthalmology — described on the page about hooded eyelids. Where none of them does, it remains an aesthetic procedure and therefore self-funded. Which of the two applies to you, we tell you plainly before you decide.
- No. Many people arrive with 'something around the eyes' and go home with a clear allocation. Sometimes it is the upper lid, sometimes the lower, sometimes both — and sometimes neither: a low-sitting brow or a ptosis can produce the same tired impression while calling for something other than a skin tightening. A true ptosis also belongs in an ophthalmic assessment: unlike excess skin on its own, it can be a functional finding. That is exactly why we measure before making any recommendation, instead of operating on whatever was named on the telephone.
- Bring your glasses, any earlier eye findings you have, and a list of your medicines. Three things are worth mentioning unprompted — whether you take blood-thinning medication, whether your eyes tend towards dryness or irritation, and whether you have had surgery on the eye or the lids before. Please do not stop a blood thinner on your own initiative; whether and how it is handled is something we settle with you and the practice that prescribed it. And come without eye make-up: the lid margin is difficult to assess otherwise.
- Not in principle, but it is a reason to look more closely. With every blink the lid spreads the tear film; change the shape of the lid and you change that process too. So we check tear film, lid closure and the corneal surface before planning, rather than once something stings afterwards. Where dryness is pronounced we treat it first, plan more conservatively, or advise against the procedure — and we tell you the reason. That an eye can be drier in the first weeks is part of the expected course and is discussed beforehand.
Measure first, discuss afterwards — then decide.
What comes first is an examination, not an operation. You receive a written breakdown of costs before you decide — and what we cannot recommend, we do not recommend.
+41 44 500 69 00 — Mon–Fri 08:00–12:00 / 13:00–17:30. Or Request a consultation online.