How Sagging Eyelid Surgery Can Improve Your Health
The best kinds of plastic surgery are the ones that improve your physical wellbeing, right? While there’s no shame in getting plastic surgery because you are unhappy with your appearance, plastic surgery that’s been recommended for your health may be that extra push you need to schedule an appointment and get the surgery.
One surgical procedure performed at our Los Angeles facial plastic surgery office is blepharoplasty. This is the general term for fixing the eyelids that are sagging in some way. This procedure can be done on the upper and lower lids to give patients a fresh and alert appearance.
The eyes are often the center of the aging process, and those who want to look younger can alter their eyes to accomplish this. Blepharoplasty can be used to:
- Trim and pull back sagging upper eyelids
- Lift sagging eyelids
- Reduce puffiness around the eyes that won’t go away
- Fill out deep bags beneath the eyes
Undereye bags and wrinkles are a natural occurrence that people instantly feel more attractive once they’re removed. However, these are only cosmetic issues. Sagging eyelids can begin to obscure your vision, putting you in potential danger when you drive and leave the house.
Like septorhinoplasty, you can undergo blepharoplasty for both cosmetic and functional purposes.
Can Blepharoplasty Be Covered By Health Insurance?
It’s common knowledge that plastic surgery in California won’t be covered by a health insurance policy. However, health insurance does cover, or partially cover, procedures that help the structure or function of a body part.
According to the American Society of Plastic Surgeons, insurance companies will only pay for surgical costs when the procedure is for reconstructive or functional problems. Your sagging skin must cause a “visually significant” obstruction of the upper visual field in order to be covered.
As mentioned above, our plastic surgery professionals in Los Angeles can improve the function of the eye by cutting away the excess skin and tightening it. It’s possible that the sagging upper eyelid skin could be covering so much of your eye that it’s affecting your vision.
Vision interference can be due to a number of issues that affect the eyelid, including:
- ptosis (drooping due to muscle weakness or nerve damage)
- blepharochalasis (eyelid swelling)
- dermatochalasis (excess skin)
- herniated orbital fat (excess fat)
- floppy eyelid syndrome and visual field obstruction.
To start the process of insurance-covered upper eyelid surgery, you first need to visit an optometrist, not a plastic surgeon. An optometrist can examine your vision and decide if droopy eyelid surgery in Los Angeles is medically necessary, and they will give you written documentation of this recommendation.
After you get your optometrist’s recommendation, you can visit our blepharoplasty specialist in our Los Angeles offices. One of our doctors will examine your eyes and then write out their plan to correct your vision issues. We always take photos of our patients before surgery, and your doctor can give these photos and recommendations for you to give to your insurance company.
With two doctors’ recommendations, your blepharoplasty procedure has a good chance of being covered by insurance.
Is Blepharoplasty Covered By Health Insurance or Vision Insurance?
Blepharoplasty is covered by health insurance when the visual field is impacted by the sagging skin. Your general medical insurance should cover this procedure; you don’t need vision insurance.
Blepharoplasty for Cosmetic Purposes
While lifting sagging skin around your eyelids can help your vision, we cannot guarantee that your eyelid surgery will be covered by insurance.
If you want a younger appearance but don’t have a medical reason behind blepharoplasty, you can still undergo saggy eyelid surgery in Los Angeles. When you meet with one of our plastic surgeons, they will give you recommendations based on your complaints about your appearance.
Some other anti-aging procedures that our doctors perform include a facelift and injectable fillers and wrinkle relaxers such as Botox.
Regardless, our surgeons have a track record of happy patients who feel decades younger after leaving our office. In many cases, our patient’s peers don’t even notice that they had work done, if anonymity is important to your cosmetic surgery needs.
About Westside Face
By making small but impactful changes, our cosmetic surgeons have found an award-winning technique for turning the clock back on our patient’s faces. By making minimal alterations, we provide patients with natural-looking results with the shortest possible recovery time.
Whether it’s vision obstruction or breathing issues, we also aim to improve functionality with our cosmetic surgeries. Our award-winning surgical prowess will not only make you look better, but you’ll also feel better. Even more, we accept and are in-network with Medicare, and most PPO/HMO insurances. Schedule a consultation with an aesthetic specialist at Westside Face today by calling 310-846-8519 or emailing appointments@westsideface.com.
