Options for Enlargement of Asian Eyes

Dear Ghprime,Thanks for your questions.In your situation, a double eyelid procedure is appropriate.  You do have some ptosis, or drooping of the eyelids and this would ideally be corrected as well.  Typically, in my practice, we use a non-incisional form of double eyelid surgery where small punctures are used to pass a surgical thread through the eyelid multiple times to create the eyelid fold.  The same thread can be used to tighten one of the muscles of the upper eyelid to correct the ptosis (Muller tuck).  The advantage of this approach is that both conditions, the lack of the eyelid fold and ptosis, can be correctly without a large incision on the eyelid, which greatly shortens your recovery as there is much less bruising and swelling.Aloha,Shim Ching, MD

Thank you for the question.  You’re absolutely right regarding whether a double eyelid surgery will make the eyes look bigger.  Creating a double eyelid will help accentuate the eyes and help define the periocular region.  However, the overall size of the eyes are dependent on the vertical and horizontal dimensions when eyes are fully opened.  Sometimes the vertical dimension is dependent on the upper eyelid opening mechanism.  In some patients ,and it’s especially more prevalent in Asians, the muscles that help open the eyes are weak.  This is referred to as ptosis or “lazy eyes”.  In order the make the eyes open more there are different techniques that help tighten the muscle so that the vertical opening of the eyes are enlarged.  
The horizontal width can be enlarged by either opening the inner or outer corner of the eyes.  This is referred to as medial epicanthoplasty or lateral canthoplasty.  
Commonly depending on patient’s condition and wishes, we perform these ancillary procedures in combination with double eyelid surgeries to complete correction.  Please make sure to address these options with your plastic surgeon with experience since double eyelid surgery on its own does not “enlarge” the eyes.

You would likely benefit from Asian eyelid blepharoplasty which will automatically make your eyes look a bit "larger."  You may also benefit from a medial epicanthoplasty and a levator advancement, but I would recommend seeing a plastic surgeon with Asian eyelid expertise who can evaluate your eyes in more detail.   Good luck!

A double eyelid procedure will give the illusion of a larger eye, but in addition, you appear to have some weakness in the muscles that open the eyes. Thus the vertical dimension of your eye is smaller than ideal. This is very common situation and I find that almost all eyes have some degree of what is called ptosis. When you undergo the double eyelid procedure, the muscle that opens the eyes lie in the surgical field - this can tightened up as part of the procedure to help open the eyes more. In addition, removing the inner fold of skin - an inner epi - will increase the visible amount of the whites of the eyes.

Many of our patients request treatments to make there eyes larger. In reality we don’t make the eyes larger but can make them appear to be more open. This is done mainly through a procedure called Blepharoplasty.
This allows the surgeon to remove some of the extra eyelid skin so that the lid margin and eyelashes are more prominent visually. It gives the appearance of larger more open eyes. In addition for some Asian patients a crease in the upper eyelid can be created to give the double eyelid configuration that some prefer.