Thank you for your question.
You submitted a single photo, and you stated you’re doing some research in Korean eyelid
surgery, and that you want to improve the symmetry between your eyes.
You want to know, of course, what's the best approach, and you asked at the end of your
question on whether or not it’s necessary to remove sutures after non-incisional eyelid
surgery.
Certainly I can help you with these questions.
I'm a Board-certified cosmetic surgeon, and I'm a Fellowship-trained oculoplastic or oculofacial
plastic surgeon, practicing in Manhattan and Long Island for over 20 years.
I specialize in Asian eyelid surgery, so I can give you some perspective on how we would
approach a patient like yourself, when people like you come to our practice.
So let's begin with the differentiation of the two methods of Asian eyelid surgery.
One is called incisional, one is called non-incisional.
Non-incisional procedures, which I'll stay focused on for you, because looking at your
photos, I don't see any evidence of a significant amount of skin, still require small incisions.
These a little openings made in the skin and through the skin, stitches are placed, and
those stitches engage the skin, or I should say attach the skin with the levator muscle.
The levator muscle is the muscle that lifts the eyelid—it’s what is responsible for
causing a crease.
When people are born with a natural crease, it’s because the levator muscle has natural
fibers that are attached to the skin and muscle in the front that creates a crease.
Surgically, we create that crease by using sutures.
Now, the difference between a non-incisional incision and incisional is that with an incisional
operation we are removing skin.
It may not be a lot of skin but it is still about the removal of skin.
And so that type of surgery, we're still also engaging the levator muscle to attach to the
skin.
Now as far as the question about removal of sutures with the non-incisional method, you
don't have to do that.
The non-incisional sutures are actually permanently placed inside the eyelid, so they don't have
to be removed.
The skin just kind of grows over and most of the time it's not an issue.
This is an important thing to understand, and it also has an appeal because a lot of
times, the amount of swelling is considerably less after a non-incisional Asian Eyelid surgery.
Short-term there can be swelling for both methods, but the swelling appears to go away
a little bit faster with a non-incisional surgery.
Of course there are always exceptions to that.
So I think that you should meet with qualified and experienced cosmetic surgeons who are
very familiar with Asian eyelid surgery, to figure out what's the best choice for you—non-incisional
vs incisional.
But I think you're on the right track in terms of your research and I think once you meet
with a doctor that you feel is right for you, you can move forward with trying to achieve
the symmetry that you want to achieve.
So I hope that was helpful and I wish you the best of luck.
Thank you for your question.