What Is Festoon Removal?
Considering Festoon Removal
Goals of Festoon Removal
Your Consultation
Choosing A Plastic Surgeon
How is Festoon Surgery Performed?
Where is Festoon Removal Performed?
The Best Candidates for Festoon Excision
After Surgery
What Sets Dr. Weintraub Apart?

What Is Festoon Removal?

Festoons, also referred to as eye bags, are bags of the lower eyelid skin and can look, at their worst, like balloon draperies. Patients can appear tired when they’ve rested and much older than their age. This condition is often the result of aging, genetics, smoking, and/or sun exposure. Depending on the severity of the condition, Dr. Weintraub can remove festoons in a variety of ways, including the transconjunctival surgical approach and direct removal performed with microscopic magnification and sewn with the finest suture material to create nearly invisible incisions. Sometimes, lasers are used to remove fine, crepey wrinkles in the skin overlying the festoons.

Considering Festoon Removal

There is no specific chronological age that determines when you should have a rejuvenative procedure like eyelid surgery. When you look in the mirror and see something that truly bothers you – that’s when you should pick up the phone or send us an email to arrange for a consultation. Remember, though, there is only one person to have plastic surgery for: you and you alone. It should never be undertaken due to pressure from others.

Goals of Festoon Removal

The goal of festoon removal is to create flat, even skin without draping, bagging, or puffiness. Your undereye area should be youthful, smooth, and refreshed.

Your Consultation

You’ve certainly looked in the mirror many times. However, when you look in the mirror and begin to see things that upset you, that’s when you should schedule a consultation. A consultation will help give you a better understanding of your own issues.

When looking for the best plastic surgeon, you should:

Check for board certification by the American Board of Plastic Surgery (there are many other boards—some legitimate and some not—but there is only one American Board of Plastic Surgery, established in 1931).
Ensure that the physician attends a major hospital in your community, and is in good standing with that hospital.
Confirm that he or she has a fine reputation amongst other medical professionals in your community.
Speak to the surgeon’s patients who have undergone similar procedures.

Remember, this is your treatment, and you are interviewing the doctor as much as he’s interviewing you. Do not hesitate to bring a list of questions with you on your consultation. And remember: a good surgeon is someone who not only has the skill to perform the treatment, but is someone who understands what your specific needs and desires are. A good surgeon should listen, listen, and listen!

Have no fear during your consultation. This is a time to speak, to be heard, and to develop a trusting relationship. Questions can be answered, and fears allayed. And while Dr. Weintraub is at the forefront of his field in terms of his techniques and medical developments, you will find his office environment to be warm, personable, and inviting. He and his staff truly care about each and every patient, and take great pride in making themselves available to help with every step of the process.

How is Festoon Surgery Performed?

Safety comes first. Plastic surgery is surgery and should therefore be taken seriously. Dr. Weintraub prefers his festoon removal patients to be in a comfortable state of twilight sleep where the patient is unarousable and is awakened only after the procedure is over. Due to advancements in anesthesia and new medications possessing a shorter half-life, no longer do festoon removal patients have to contend with nausea, vomiting, or grogginess; rather, the emergence from anesthesia is crisp and clear.

Dr. Weintraub insists on the most sterile conditions in the New York City operating room with board-certified anesthesiologists and state-of-the-art monitoring equipment commensurate with the highest hospital standards. The only person performing the surgery is Dr. Weintraub himself. Every intraoperative maneuver is executed with precision and care, and all wounds are sewn in multiple layers by his own hand.

Festoon removal surgery should never be rushed, and Dr. Weintraub always strives for the best, as he understands that patients will live with the result for the rest of their lives. His aesthetic is sophisticated and reflective of understated elegance. In his own words, “Cosmetic surgery is nothing less than artwork on the human form.”

Where is Festoon Removal Performed?

Though once limited to a hospital setting, the more modern approach to cosmetic plastic surgery is to perform such procedures in a safe, secure, and completely private operating room. Although Dr. Weintraub has privileges at Lenox Hill Hospital and Manhattan Eye Ear and Throat Hospital, he prefers the privacy of his hospital-grade, state-of-the-art surgical center attached to his office at 800A Fifth Avenue. This facility is attended by Dr. Weintraub’s team of board-certified anesthesiologists, certified registered nurses, and fully licensed operating-room staff. With its private entrance, its standards are of the highest quality, and offer Dr. Weintraub’s patients the utmost in medical and plastic-surgical care.

The Best Candidates for Festoon Excision

The best candidates for a malar bag treatment are well balanced, in good general and mental health, and possess realistic expectations.

You are highly motivated to make the change.
You have the ability to pause your daily responsibilities (work, family, school etc.) in order to undergo the procedure.
You have the financial wherewithal to make an elective cosmetic surgery come to fruition.

After Surgery

There can occasionally be a short period of very minimal swelling and minimal bruising after your festoon removal surgery. You must carefully follow all instructions provided by Dr. Weintraub in order to achieve the best results possible. He is a firm believer in early showering because, in his own words, “Clean wounds make for narrower incisions.” He will advise you as to when you can return to your normal lifestyle and exercise routine after your festoon removal surgery in NYC.

What Sets Dr. Weintraub Apart?

Dr. Weintraub has always been blessed with a strong aesthetic sense. He possesses a unique blend of medical science and artwork, as it truly is artwork that he performs on the human form. His attention to detail ensures that he gets the best results possible, and he is meticulous about everything he does, from pre-op to post-op care and beyond.*

He studied medicine at Cornell during a time when core values were emphasized, and it is on these values that he bases his practice. He believes that physicians should be humble and respectful, and should never lose sight that the person they are operating on is exactly that: a person possessing real-life issues and concerns. The chairmen of the department of general surgery at Cornell at the time, Dr. Tom Shires, along with another luminary, Dr. Leon Morgenstern of Cedars-Sinai, taught Dr. Weintraub that “The operating room is a sacred place. It’s a very serious place. Never be cavalier about surgery.”

During his surgical residency training, Dr. Weintraub regularly visited Mexico to donate his time operating on deformed children and adults who couldn’t afford proper healthcare. In less-than-optimal conditions, he learned how to perform surgery with the basics, and received great satisfaction in making profound differences in people’s lives by restoring their faces and bodies. Similarly, when he was Chief Resident at the New York Hospital – Cornell Medical Center, and later when he was Chief Resident at the Reconstructive Unit at Memorial Sloan-Kettering, he found that his compassion for patients, along with his skill and precision as a surgeon, could change lives and bring people joy they never thought possible.

Dr. Weintraub believes that surgery is never a race. The patient is always number one. He keeps in his wallet a piece of paper that is his motto in the operating room: “Always demand what is right, and never accept second best.” He likes to consider himself a “thinking surgeon,” and does not enter the operating room with a mechanical series of steps to execute robotically, but likes to remain alert and ready for whatever intraoperative challenges might spontaneously arise. Although many notable surgeons openly listen to music while performing surgery, Dr. Weintraub does not, preferring the mood of the operating room to remain serious and focused.

Over 60% of Dr. Weintraub’s practice is comprised of complex redos of surgeries performed by other surgeons. Such procedures always involve difficult issues, since there exist not only the limitations of a patient’s own anatomy, but also the limitations of another surgeon’s aesthetic, and the scar tissue that has developed as a result. Patients seek Dr. Weintraub from all over the world to correct their aesthetic problems. He takes great pride in getting the best results, and always enjoys the challenges of such procedures.

Last, Dr. Weintraub will not hesitate to turn patients away if he feels they are not good candidates for surgery. If a surgery is not in someone’s best interest, he will be the first to say so. However, when a patient is a good candidate, the results produced by Dr. Weintraub can be magical, and he feels that it is an honor to give patients a gift they can enjoy for the rest of their lives.

How To Get Started

Dr. Weintraub and his staff will be happy to discuss festoon removal with you. Please call our New York City office for a private consultation. We hope you look forward to our warm welcome and the opportunity for us to help you make an educated and confident decision.

Contact our office today to set up your consultation for festoon removal.