Thank you for your question.
You submitted a photo, and you’re asking a question about your left eye and how it
appears compared to your right eye.
And you want to learn more about the option and the recommendation as to what kind of
doctor is best suited for treating your situation.
Well, to give you a little bit about my background, I’m a Board-certified cosmetic surgeon.
I’m a Fellowship-trained cosmetic oculofacial plastic surgeon.
That means my background training included Ophthalmology or eye surgery, followed by
specialised training in the eyelids through the American Society of Ophthalmic Plastic
and Reconstructive Surgery.
I’ve been practicing in Manhattan and Long Island for over 20 years.
So, if I can break this down for you, it might be helpful.
Number one, let’s label what is the issue with the left eye.
The left eye appears to be lower than the right eye, and the term that we use for this
condition is called “ptosis”, or drooping of the eyelid.
Now, with the understanding that this is not something that is recent, and is something
that you’ve always had, or if it is something that is more recent, then of course you need
to see an ophthalmologist to get a work up to see what the cause of the ptosis is.
We differentiate, in our specialty, between acquired and congenital ptosis.
“Acquired” means something that you acquired later on in your life, and “congenital”
meaning you were born with it.
So you can probably look at your photos from the past to see if it was always like this.
If your eyes were always like this, then a further work up is not necessary, but the
question is what to do.
If you have reasonable muscle function, then what we do is something called a ptosis operation
where the muscle that lifts the eyelid, called the levator muscle—like the word “elevator”;
it elevates the eyelid—is operated upon.
There’s also a muscle called the Meuller’s muscle, which is located behind the levator
muscle, and it also could be operated upon.
Now all these decisions are based on a physical examination, and evaluating the height of
the eyelid and the muscle function, as well as other things that are relevant to the actual
surgery.
Ptosis surgery is, in general, performed by an oculoplastic surgeon who are doctors like
myself, who originally trained in eye surgery and specialised in eyelid surgery.
In addition, in your situation, of course you also have Asian eyes, and I think it’s
important that you seek a doctor who also has a lot of experience with Asian eyelids.
Because of the anatomy of Asian eyelids, there are a lot of other considerations necessary
when performing this surgery, depending on the approach and the type of surgery—whether
it’s from the front of the eyelid, or from behind the eyelid.
When we perform ptosis surgery with people who are adults or, let’s say, over 14-15
years old, we usually have the patient’s cooperation during the surgery, so we can
set the height and contour, and be able to see how the eyes look, so that we can maximize
the symmetry.
Ptosis surgery can be very tricky.
The muscle is very delicate and we want to get the ideal height and shape.
Ninety-five percent of the time we get a great result as we see in surgery, and 5% of the
time, we need to do some enhancement.
Regardless of that, that’s part of the nature of ptosis surgery.
So I recommend you meet with qualified, experienced oculoplastic or oculofacial plastic surgeons,
learn about their experience with Asian eyelid surgery, and find a person that you’re comfortable
with, and then move forward with the procedure.
So I hope that was helpful and I wish you the best of luck.
Thank you for your question.