Thank you for your question! You’re 43 years old and you submitted 2
photos and you’re asking is it possible to make your pupil visible or partially visible
and that you stated throughout your whole life, you’re always teased about the size
and openings of your eyes. You took the liberty of measuring that your eye opening is actually
5 to 7 mm and you want to know if it’s possible to lift your eyes to show more of your pupil.
Well I can certainly share with you my perspective. . I’m a board certified cosmetic surgeon
and fellowship trained oculofacial plastic and reconstructive surgeon. One of my areas
of specialty is Asian eyelids surgery and certainly I have experience over 20 years
of practice in Manhattan and Long Island of performing ptosis surgery for Asian eyelids
and I’ll explain what that is. So to begin with, the fact that your vision
hasn’t been negatively impacted that essential you wear distance glasses after turning 40
is very good because when the eyes are drooping to a point where they limit your vision then
you can develop a condition called amblyopia if your eyelids is not elevated before the
age of 6. With that being said, since visual development is not likely going to be an issue
for you, you have to understand some terminology. When people seek eyelids enhancement or rejuvenation,
we have to differentiate two terms: one is dermatochalasis which excess skin and two
is ptosis which means drooping of the eyelid margin and relative to the pupil. So in your
situation, most likely the eyelid margin has been probably just clearing the pupil and
as you gone a little bit older it’s got a little bit lower. So what we are dealing
with most likely is condition called Congenital ptosis basically meaning you are born with
this drooping eyelid or it could be basically a family trait which is still basically being
born with but with congenital ptosis, the eye muscles develops in a way which is limited
and we measure that limitation by using a combination of examinations where we measure
the distance between the upper and lower eyelid or the lower part of the iris and we look
at the muscle function which truly defines the degree of functionality of the muscle
called levator muscle. Levator muscle is the muscle that lifts your eyelids.
Basically when we have that information we can make a recommendation as what kind of
surgery performed. Ptosis surgery can be performed in situations where the muscle function is
good from just behind the eyelid or it can be done from in front of the eyelid. It just
depends on what the degree of muscle function is and the degree of ptosis is.
That being said, to answer your question, first of all is, yes it is possible to lift
the eyelid but it is very important to distinguish muscle surgery from skin surgery. There have
been so many patients who come to me who have had skin surgery by well meaning plastic surgeons
who took off skin thinking the skin is winged down the eyelid not realizing that the patient
really had ptosis or drooping on the eyelid relating to the muscle. And of course they
still had a drooping eyelid they just have less skin on their upper eyelid.
So seek the attention of a qualified, experienced specialist particularly one who understands
with ptosis and Asian eyelids and learn about your options and figure out what make sense
with you. Ptosis surgery in our practice, we do this with local anesthesia with LITE™
sedation which means you’re just given a little bit liquid volume to relax but will
actually have you open your eyes. Many times we will have to sit you up to look at the
level of the eyelid to make sure that they are matching and they look good. This is a
predictor to the likelihood of the success with the surgery and it’s important to understand
that since from my experience, more than 95 % of the time it can work out beautifully
but there is approximately 5% of the time where the eyelid can be too open or too low
and in need for revision. That’s part of the reality of this type of surgery and it’s
more appropriate for you to learn that during a formal consultation with the specialist
of your choice. So I hope that was helpful, I wish you the
best of luck and thank you for your question!