How Can I Improve My Close Set Eyes?

Q: Dr. Eppley, I had a question regarding close set eyes. I am a 24 year old female with close set eyes. I have tried many different methods to try and camouflage this. When I was younger I started with makeup, using eyeliner to lengthen the outer corners of my eyes and plucking my inner eyebrows to spread them further apart. I then had a rhinoplasty which helped slim the bridge of my nose on the frontal profile, this helped minimally. I also had some filler placed into the corners of the upper eyelids, hoping this would give the illusion of further set eyes, this also helped minimally. I looked into canthoplasty to potentially lengthen the outer corner of my eyes, but two surgeons said they did not believe any improvments could be made to the outer corners of my eyes. I included two pictures below, one of my current self and one that’s edited with my ideal eye distance. Would orbital box surgery be the only way to achieve the difference demonstrated in the pictures? And do you believe it’s worth the risks? Thank you.

A:As you have correctly surmised the only way to make a further increasing the distance between your eyes would be some form of an orbital box osteotomy.

That being said given your natural starting point (magnitude of the problem) this should be something that you would never do or even consider. The aesthetic risks far outweigh what the benefits would be meaning you’re going to create a whole new set of problems that you may dislike greater then the problem that you see now.

Dr. Barry Eppley

Plastic Surgeon