Eyeworld

3. Educate, educate, educate. The best patient is one who is well-informed about the procedure and realistic about what it can do, said Jill Melicher, MD, Minnesota Eye Consultants, Minneapolis. This is true both for functional and cosmetic patients. "Even functional patients want cosmetic results," Dr. Melicher said. She will show preop and postop best-case and worst-case photos to help patients understand what surgery can or cannot do. It's better to underpromise and overdeliver, Dr. Kossler added. 4. Use a mirror to understand what patients want. Patients may say they don't like their droopy eye- lids, but their definition of that term may be different from what it truly means. Dr. Melicher advised handing patients a mirror so they can point out what they don't like so there's no confusion. that your practice now offers bleph- aroplasty, suggested Mark Alford, MD, North Texas Ophthalmic Plastic Surgery, Fort Worth, Texas. Preop expectations Set clear expectations during your preop visit. "In the preoperative meeting and examination, you as the surgeon have to determine what the patient thinks is the problem and what he or she hopes for after surgery," Dr. Alford said. 2. Let patients know that the goal isn't to make their eye area look drastically younger, cautioned Jeffrey Nerad, MD, Cincinnati Eye Institute, Cincinnati. Because humans are attuned to facial dis- harmony, a major disconnect in the appearance between one area of the face versus the rest of it would look odd. "The best procedure is one that no one knows the patient has had," Dr. Nerad said. Consider patient expectations, worst- case scenarios E yelid blepharoplasty continues to grow in popularity; it's the third most common aesthetic surgical proce- dure in the U.S. 1 Ophthalmic sur- geons who are considering offering the procedure at their practices must take into account the challenges that come with promoting it properly, tailoring patient expectations, and avoiding any risks. Complications from lower eyelid surgery, in partic- ular, can lead to major deformities and functional impairment, reported Andrea Lora Kossler, MD, assistant professor of ophthalmology, and director, ophthalmic reconstructive, facial plastic surgery and orbital on- cology, Byers Eye Institute, Stanford University, Palo Alto, California, and coauthors. 1 To help physicians effectively add blepharoplasty to their practice, Ophthalmology Business shares infor- mation presented during a blepharo- plasty lecture at the 2017 American Academy of Ophthalmology annual meeting as well as additional pearls from the presenters and from Dr. Kossler. Marketing 1. Start with word of mouth. Don't turn immediately to large-scale advertising to the general public. "Pa- tient satisfaction and word of mouth is the best marketing strategy," Dr. Kossler said. "If you do great work, people will come to you." You can, however, let your current patients and other ophthalmologists know tips to make blepharoplasty a success at your practice by Vanessa Caceres, Ophthalmology Business Contributing Writer continued on page 24 A potentially challenging patient for blepharoplasty. She has some extra skin on the upper eyelids but also has eyelid ptosis, brow descent, and thick, inflamed skin. A good result would likely require a brow lift, ptosis repair, and blepharoplasty. Source: Mark Alford, MD 10 July 2018 • Ophthalmology Business 23

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