Can I get my Asian eyelid surgery reversed? (photos)

Question

I am half asian, and I had multiple surgeries when I was 11 to turn my almond eyes round. I was wondering if there was a possible way to make my eyes go back to being almond shaped? Now that I´m older (20) I regret getting the surgeries

Donald B. Yoo, MD, FACS · Answer

You have beautiful eyes.  Based on your photos, I wouldn't advise trying to surgically "reverse" your prior surgeries, as it may leave you with an undesirable result.  At your age, it's a little early to be pursuing non-surgical modalities such as fillers as well.

Amiya Prasad, MD · Answer

From your photo, I
noticed that the outer corner of the eyes appear to have been pulled outward. It’s
possible that as the bones grow, the corners which were fixated have shifted
outward. I also noticed that the lower eyelids appear to be rounded or a bit
over-rounded for your facial features and structure. We call this a relative
lower eyelid retraction. A strategy is the correction of the outer corner as
well as vertical correction of the lower eyelid.

In order to be able
to do a repair or reconstruction of the eyelid structure, we have to determine
the anatomic elements of the eyelids that need additional tissue. The lower
eyelid position is dependent on the lateral canthal tendon which is responsible
for stabilizing the lower eyelid. It is attached to the bone, the lower eyelid
retractors, orbicularis oculi muscle and the skin. All of these factors determine
the eyelid position.

If there’s a shortage
of support that causes eyelid retraction, I do grafting using a material like Enduragen
or human acellular dermis. These structural benefits or grafts need to be
placed on the inside to give the eyelids vertical support. Unfortunately, a lot
of plastic surgeons try to pull the lower eyelid up without any vertical support
and end up creating a bold look and it doesn’t really work out. In addition, patients
may also benefit from waiting and seeing how their face matures over time and it
may be the most practical decision.

The upper eyelids
are also dependent on how much available skin there is. If there’s a skin
shortage, then patients may require skin grafting. Skin grafts are beneficial
to younger patients because they have good healing. When we do skin grafts in
our practice, we maximize the aesthetic result by the use of platelet-rich
plasma to improve the healing, and also use extracellular matrix. Good surgical
technique is also important to get optimal and natural results.

We do a fair amount
of Asian eyelid surgery and we have patients who come for revision surgery. One
of the most common reasons for their revision surgery is that as they got
older, their eyelids got more hollow. To address that, we do fat grafting. We
take fat from one part of the body and place it into the space just below the
brow and the orbital space to try to restore some volume in that area.

However, in the
absence of a physical exam, I can’t tell the elasticity of the skin and how
much skin is available. I think that it would be fair for me to conclude that
as a young person, you don’t have a lot of skin laxity. In a way, it limits the
amount of stretch that any type of surgery would be able to use to move tissue
from one point to another.

I suggest that you
meet with qualified experienced cosmetic surgeons. Get some opinions and
understand the strategy is and what you’re willing to accept. Hopefully you’ll
come up with a game plan that you can live with. I hope that was helpful, I
wish you the best of luck, and thank you for your question.

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Suzanne Kim Doud Galli, MD, PhD, FACS · Answer

It would be very difficult to reverse your surgery. You may be able to change your eyeshape with fillers or fat grafting.

Can I get my Asian eyelid surgery reversed? (photos)

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Can I get my Asian eyelid surgery reversed? (photos)

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