In this week’s episode of Thyroid Thursday, Dr. Raymond Douglas discusses Customized Orbital Decompression.
What will a decompression accomplish?
Dr. Douglas likes to think of customized orbital decompression as building a house. The decompression starts with a foundation of improvement, it puts the eyes back into a near normal position. However, that doesn’t mean you would stop building a house once its framed. For example, you would go on and build the rest of the house, paint the shutters and do things that are nicer for appearance and function.
That’s the way he looks at orbital decompression and the rejuvenation associated with thyroid eye disease. Everything is customized because you don’t want to do the same surgery for everyone, just whatever is needed is required.
Will I need anything more than a decompression?
For most patients, Dr. Douglas will move the eyes back in a decompression. This may also include doing other procedures at the same time, such as dealing with lower eyelids and improving lower eyelid retraction or lowering the upper eyelids and doing an upper eyelid blepharoplasty to remove some of the bulkiness. This is really problematic for some patients more than others.
Occasionally, Dr. Douglas can move the eyes back adequately but they still require a mid-facelift, where the cheeks have descended down and they may require an implant to give more prominence to the cheeks. This is an improvement that a decompression just cannot give.
Lastly, in some patients, the lower face becomes bulky in the cheek area and patients do not realize it is due to thyroid eye disease. Due to it being in the lower face, we can remove much of this fat with a buccal fat removal procedure from the inside of the mouth in a scarless way. These procedures combined with decompression really enhance the results. It is not all about decompression, it is about how to put these things together to achieve optimal results in a customized fashion. He discusses this with patients during a consultation (in-person or video).
Contact Dr. Douglas Today!
If you or someone you know is suffering from thyroid eye disease, contact our office today to schedule an appointment with Dr. Douglas – (310) 657-4302. If you do not live in Los Angeles, ask us about our Out-of-Town Patient programs.