When you look in the mirror, what do you see?
If you see bags under your eyes and you’re getting plenty of sleep, cosmetic surgery may be an option for you.
In a special Health Check 10 report, Barbara Morse takes a look at this type of surgery and how one local doctor is not only erasing years but the pain usually involved with cosmetic surgery.
This is a big day for Dr. Warren Purvis. As a psychiatrist, he’s used to seeing patients, helping them with their problems. But today, he’s the patient, preparing for surgery and it’s Dr. Patrick Sullivan who will be correcting a few problems Warren’s patients couldn’t help but notice.
“Many of my patients or clients would really just say that I was looking tired all the time even when sometimes I was, but most of the time I was not,” says Warren.
Warren is referring specifically to the bags under his eyes. A problem he’s had since he was a child.
While he’s in surgery, Dr. Sullivan will be doing a few other corrective procedures. “For Warren, he was also concerned about the laxity in the face, the turning down of the corners of the mouth,” says Dr. Sullivan.
Warren’s face is marked for surgery then Dr. Sullivan goes to work. “What the plan is, is to go through an incision on the inside of the lower lid so we don’t have any external scar here,” says Dr. Sullivan.
Through the inside of the lower lid, Dr. Sullivan then removes the tissue that has been causing Warren’s bags. The surgery is much more involved as he works on his eyelids and face.
Weeks later, we catch up with Warren. “The first week I could barely open my eyes and just get a straw through my mouth,” Warren says.
Now, though, he’s back on track although, there is some obvious swelling. “That’s the biggest variable in this whole thing is how long the swelling will last,” says Dr. Sullivan.
We wanted to see more dramatic results. So we wait another two and a half months and check in with Warren again. We see a big difference, no more bags under the eyes, very little swelling in general and the incisions are barely visible.
“You can see that we hide them right along here behind the ear then it comes down in this natural crease,” says Dr. Sullivan.
It’s also important to note, “There was just no pain,” says Warren.
Thanks to big research gains by Dr. Sullivan and associates, “We know from our research over at the Brown Medical School just where all the nerves are that come in to supply this area so we specifically stopped the nerves from conducting pain through injecting this new medication, it’s a combination of medications,” explains Dr. Sullivan.
In the long run, what was the best part? Warren will tell you it’s the feedback from the people who can see the difference.
“Sometimes they sort of like, look and say you look different. I can’t quite tell what it is but some people notice, some people don’t, but no one says I’m tired anymore,” says Warren.
Over the years, cosmetic surgery certainly has evolved. You no longer have to have a face lift that’s obvious, you can have one that simply erases a few wrinkles and bags and years.