Concern
Upper lids that have started to hood
The line where this stops being an injectable question and becomes a surgical one is unusually clear, and you are entitled to be told which side of it you are on.
Where the weight is coming from
Three sources, and only one of them is the eyelid.
- Skin of the upper lid loses elasticity and settles onto the lash line
- The brow descends, and the lid skin follows it — the lid may be fine and the brow is the problem
- Fat behind the septum comes forward and fills the lid
- In many East Asian eyelids the crease sits lower or is absent, so hooding shows earlier and the operation is a different operation
- A forehead that works hard to hold the brow up produces deep forehead lines as a side effect, which is why the two complaints arrive together
Realistic options
This is one of the few concerns where the honest answer is often surgery, and saying otherwise would waste your money. The advantage of asking in North Vancouver is that both answers sit in one building: the assessment is ours, the operation is North Shore Plastic Surgery's, and you do not have to book twice to find out which one you need.
- No treatment needed
Nothing, if it is not obstructing anything and does not bother you
Hooding that you notice in a mirror at close range is frequently invisible to everyone else. Being told this is a legitimate outcome of a consultation.
If your upper lid genuinely obstructs your field of vision, that is a medical question with an MSP pathway and it goes through the surgical clinic, not through us.
- Surgery
Eyelid surgery consultation
Removes a measured strip of skin, sometimes a little fat or muscle. Half the consultation is spent deciding whether the lid or the brow is the cause, because operating on the wrong one gives a poor result.
- Downtime
- 7–10 days of visible bruising
- Typically lasts
- Long-term
- Skin & body
Neuromodulator, for a brow that can still be lifted a little
Relaxing the muscles that pull the brow down can raise it by a small, real amount. Millimetres, not a lift — worth doing when you are early, worth skipping when you are not.
- Downtime
- None
- Typically lasts
- 3–4 months
No injectable removes eyelid skin. Anyone offering a non-surgical eyelid lift for genuine hooding is selling you the weaker option twice.
What people ask
Is there a non-surgical version?
Not for skin that needs removing. There are treatments that tighten skin elsewhere on the face, and the upper eyelid is the one area where they do not substitute for an operation. We would rather lose the booking than pretend otherwise.
Is it covered by MSP?
A cosmetic eyelid operation is self-pay. Where upper-lid skin genuinely obstructs the field of vision it is assessed against MSP criteria with visual field testing, handled by North Shore Plastic Surgery who bill MSP directly.
Will it change my eye shape?
It should not, and preserving the shape you have is an explicit goal rather than an afterthought — particularly where the crease is naturally low or absent. Say at the consultation if you want the crease left as it is.
Can I do both eyes and my brow at once?
That is exactly the conversation the consultation is for. Doing the lid when the brow was the cause is the most common way people end up disappointed.
How long is the recovery from eyelid surgery?
Visible bruising and swelling generally run one to two weeks, with stitches out at five to seven days. Ice for the first forty-eight hours and sleeping with the head raised are the usual instructions, and lifting, bending and straining are restricted for about two weeks. The scars sit in the crease and along the lash line and go on fading for months. A brow lifted with a neuromodulator instead carries no recovery period at all.
Lid, brow, or neither?
Ask usWho does this
Assessments and treatments at the Lonsdale Avenue clinic in North Vancouver are carried out by MMC’s own clinicians. Who they are, what they trained in and which treatments each of them does is on the team page.
Other places people start
These are sorted by what is bothering you rather than by treatment name. Each page says what actually helps, what does not, and when the honest answer is that nothing here is needed.
- Loose Skin After Weight LossLosing the weight is the hard part and you have done it. What is left is usually a skin problem rather than a fat problem, and those have completely different answers.
- Fatigue & Low EnergyThis is the concern where we are least likely to sell you anything, and we would rather say that at the top of the page than at the end of a consultation.
- Dullness & Uneven ToneDullness and dehydration are a texture problem, not a shape problem. That distinction decides which half of the menu is even relevant.
- Volume Loss & HollowsVolume loss is the change people describe as looking tired or gaunt without being able to name a line. It is also the one where over-treatment is most visible from across a room.
- Forehead & Frown LinesForehead and frown lines are muscle before they are skin. The question that decides your result is not the dose — it is whether the line is still only there when you move.
- Jawline & Contour LossThe most common reason people book here, and the one where the honest answer changes most with age. In your forties a device usually does it. In your sixties it usually does not.
- Nasolabial FoldsNasolabial folds are usually a symptom. Filling the fold itself is the most common way to end up looking heavy in the lower face.
- Stubborn Body FatA pocket that stays the same size while the rest of you changes. Usually the flanks, the lower abdomen, or under the chin. The useful question is not which machine to use — it is whether what you are looking at is fat at all.
- Under-Eye Hollows & ShadowsThe most common request here, and the one where the answer is most often no. Under-eye shadow has at least four causes and filler helps exactly one of them.