In today’s age of self-promotion, small, closed-looking eyes can give others a sharp or stern impression. As a result, more people are seeking medical services such as ptosis correction, epicanthoplasty, or lateral canthoplasty as ways to reduce that closed, stuffy appearance.

In particular, epicanthoplasty, a procedure that opens the Mongolian fold at the inner corner of the eye, can transform closed-looking eyes into a clearer, more open-looking eye shape. For this reason, it is one of the procedures most commonly performed together with double-eyelid surgery among people planning eye surgery.

However, if epicanthoplasty is performed hastily with the expectation of achieving sharper and more defined eyes, without precise analysis, consultation, and diagnosis by a board-certified plastic surgery medical team, it may result in excessive opening and other issues.

Such surgical outcomes can instead make the impression look stronger or lead to side effects such as dry eye syndrome.

Representative side-effect cases include deformities into a C-shaped or bird-beak-like appearance due to excessive incision without considering the overall facial proportions, asymmetry of the inner corners of both eyes, and excessive exposure of the lacrimal lake. Side effects such as excessive exposure of the lacrimal lake can also cause dry eye syndrome, which may lead to daily discomfort and various eye diseases. Therefore, if these side effects do not improve even after 6 months to more than 1 year following epicanthoplasty, epicanthoplasty reconstruction should be considered.

In particular, a bird-beak shape may occur as a side effect of excessive incision, but some people have a congenital bird-beak-like inner eye corner even without having undergone epicanthoplasty. Although this is also considered a difficult case, improvement is possible.

Epicanthoplasty reconstruction is a surgery that restores the various problems described above after epicanthoplasty. To prevent yet another revision surgery, it must be performed with precise design and delicate surgical technique that minimize tissue damage and keep scars from being externally visible.

Because the diagnosis, design, and surgical judgment for epicanthoplasty reconstruction vary depending on each individual’s eye shape, it is most important to check what kind of eye shape resulted after the first surgery and what side effects the patient is experiencing.

There are various methods for epicanthoplasty reconstruction, but rather than reconstruction methods that can cause recurrence of the Mongolian fold, a method that closes the lacrimal lake itself is effective. Horizontal lacrimal lake restoration is a surgical technique that minimizes recurrence of the Mongolian fold and is a relatively more difficult epicanthoplasty restoration method than standard epicanthoplasty reconstruction.

In addition, because epicanthoplasty reconstruction is a revision surgery, the unsatisfactory areas and discomfort the patient is experiencing must be checked through careful consultation, and the cause of the problem must be thoroughly analyzed. Surgery should then be performed under a precise surgical plan based on that analysis. Rather than choosing a clinic simply based on cost or information found online, it is recommended to visit in person, confirm whether there are cases similar to your own, and directly check how those cases improved before proceeding.

Medical advice: Director Hwang Ho-won, Hyundai Aesthetic Surgery

▲ Medical Report news article (2019.05.17) Source: Medical Report · Reported on 2019.05.17 · Reporter Noh Seung-ae · Original article medicalreport.kr

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