Double Eyelid Surgery – Asian Blepharoplasty

 

Many Asian people are born without a crease in the upper eyelid, called the pretarsal crease. When this lack of a pretarsal crease is not aesthetically pleasing to the patient, some seek blepharoplasty or what is commonly known as double eyelid surgery. Double eyelid surgery involves placing a crease that is roughly parallel to the lash line of the patient’s upper eyelid. In most cases, a sliver of fat must be removed from the eyelid in order to create the fold, or double eyelid. In addition, the double eyelid procedure usually involves suturing a new fold into the eyelid that becomes part of the eyelid as the patient recovers from the surgery.

 

 

Double eyelid surgery or Asian blepharoplasty is meant to give the eyes a brighter look and to facilitate the placement of eye makeup. Traditionally the procedure has faced some resistance because some argue that it is chosen by Asian people who are not proud of or want to disguise their ethnic heritage. In truth, double eyelid surgery is purely cosmetic, and should not be misinterpreted as an ethnicity-altering treatment. In Western cultures, especially in the United States, patients rarely request this surgery in order to mask ethnicity. Surgeons will often refuse to perform the procedure if they believe that the patient is trying to specifically mask a racial heritage. In fact, many plastic surgeons require that the patient undergo a psychological screening and evaluation before a double eyelid surgery will be performed.

 

Most Asian patients seeking double eyelid surgery are girls in their teens, women in their early twenties, or men in their twenties or thirties. Approximately 50% of East Asian peoples do not have a pretarsal crease thus the number of potential double eyelid surgeries is enormous. Far fewer numbers of patients born without a pretarsal crease actually seek out double eyelid surgery.

 

Often double eyelid surgery is performed under local anesthesia, which confers several advantages over general anesthesia. Aside from being less expensive overall, local anesthesia permits the patient to be conscious during the double eyelid procedure and therefore can hold the eyelid in place. This allows the plastic surgeon to determine the degree of retraction, ideal lid height, and location of the new pretarsal crease. The amount that an eyelid droops naturally changes under general anesthesia, sometimes  causing the surgeon to incorrectly estimate the position of the new crease. A sedative is usually given to relax the patient during double eyelid surgery without rendering them completely unconscious—remaining still during surgery around the eyes can be difficult for even the most veteran and stoic patients. When double eyelid surgery is performed on children, general anesthesia is often chosen because of the potential psychological stress of the procedure.

 

Double eyelid surgery takes about two hours on average. While the costs vary by region, double eyelid surgery or Asian blepharoplasty costs approximately $3,000 and perhaps more depending on the need for a psychological evaluation, general anesthesia, and additional medications and dressings. Cities with larger Asian population are more likely to have plastic surgeons skilled in performing double eyelid surgery. Most patients that have double eyelid surgery are very pleased with the permanent, aesthetically pleasing results.