Eyelid ptosis presentation at the American Society of Plastic Surgeons 2018

Last week, I had the opportunity to present at the American Society of Plastic Surgeons meeting in Chicago on the topic of eyelid ptosis and facelift.

I will share what was presented at the meeting to the board-certified plastic surgeons both in the United States and the world.

Eyelid ptosis can impair visual field. What this means is that one’s eyes will feel heavy. The patient may have trouble seeing the upper part of their visual field. Therefore, even a simple task of driving may be difficult. And eyelid ptosis is often misdiagnosed and underdiagnosed. This is because patients often do not know that they have eyelid ptosis. And surgeons underdiagnosed ptosis because they equate eyelid ptosis only with severe eyelid ptosis or medically induced eyelid ptosis.

However, there are many subsets of patients who have mild eyelid ptosis or moderate ptosis. These patients are often underdiagnosed because patients tend to strengthen their eyes when they look into the mirror or when they see others. Therefore, the surgeon misses the diagnosis of eyelid ptosis.

These misdiagnosed eyelid ptosis patients can receive upper blepharoplasty surgery, double eyelid surgery, or Asian eyelid surgery. Or they may receive a forehead lift or forehead Botox in order to minimize their forehead wrinkles.

However, unless their eyelid ptosis is corrected, the patients will be dissatisfied with the any of the surgery or procedures because their eyes will continue to feel heavy. In addition, rather than feeling refreshed and alert, they will look tired. A common mistake in Asians patients is that they received double eyelid surgery instead. Double eyelid surgery will not help the condition and can even make the eyelid ptosis worse.

In the next article about eyelid ptosis, we will discuss why double eyelid surgery or blepharoplasty surgery alone will worsen the symptom of eyelid ptosis.