Thank you for
your question.
You state in your question you’re a 49-year-old Japanese woman and you submitted 2 photos
and 1 with your eyebrows elevated and you state in your question that you want a very
particular look for your eyes.
And that you have been using a glue to try to create the effect but it is not really
that sustainable because of some difficulties with opening and closing your eyes and you
are asking about getting what type of procedure as well as whether to do it in US or go to
Japan.
Well, I can certainly give you my perspective.
I’m a board certified cosmetic surgeon and fellowship trained oculofacial plastic and
reconstructive surgeon practicing in Manhattan and Long Island for over 20 years and Asian
eyelid surgery is an area focus in my practice.
Certainly, I can give you my opinion as to also the choice of travelling versus staying
locally.
Now the important issue here of course is predictability and there are more than a few
ways to perform Asian eyelid surgery but they are all dependent on the achievement of a
crease or development of a more defined crease so that the eyes look more often and what
to do depending on the presence of extra skin or extra fat or both as well the possible
additional presence of ptosis or drooping of the eyelids.
There is also an option in terms of the concern about whether to have a nasally tapered crease,
one that goes to the epicanthal fold or a parallel crease.
So there are certainly several variations and a lot of it is dependent on what really
can be done.
And what I do in my office in examination is I actually use a simple blunt type of device
that we just kind of create the crease to see what would look like if we were to create
a fixation.
Whatever the technique, whether it is a non-incisional technique which is really is technically making
incisions but it’s making little openings and not a full line where stitches are placed
or incisional technique where you actually open things up and remove skin.
You are connecting the skin with the muscle and that muscle is called the levator muscle.
So when the eyelids fold open, it actually causes the crease to fall in and it’s an
effect that you are able to achieve with the glue or the use of tape and certainly I borrowed
from that page of putting a piece of tape to show patients what they can potentially
look like.
Now it really is a matter of the doctor you choose.
You have more than a few options of having doctors within United States who focus on
Asian eyelid surgery and it’s a matter of you being comfortable and confident.
Now as an oculofacial plastic surgeon, a specialist in cosmetic eyelid surgery, I have patients
who come all over the world for eyelid surgery, for elective eyelid surgery as well complications
of eyelid surgery.
So, I can share you my approach.
Essentially when someone comes to me, I want to make sure that they are around for enough
time so I can make sure that they don’t have an infection or bleeding or any problems
like that and that I can be the one to remove stitches.
And usually patients have that preference that the operating surgeon removes the stitches.
And there of course, occasional exceptions we have patients who have family members who
are doctors or who have a doctor who are willing to take out stitches but at the same time
I can share with you my experience.
I have patients who came to me who found me in New York who actually lived here and went
to Korea to have eyelid surgery and then when they have questions about the desired result
and the outcome and the process, they chose to come to me locally because they didn’t
want the best time of communicating with the original operating surgeon where they had
the surgery.
So there are plus and minuses and it really matters what your comfort levels is and I
think that you prefer the US.
You have plenty of options because there are lots of doctors who focus on eyelid surgery,
myself being amongst them.
So I think that I would have confidence in someone who does a lot of Asian eyelid surgery
who really understands it and will be there for you and it’s accessible.
So, I think that you should meet with your doctors and discuss your options.
I think that you will find some variability, you have to find the options that work best
for you and you can feel the most confident in and move forward.
So I hope that was helpful, I wish you the best of luck and thank you for your question!