How Can My Eye Be Fixed?

Q: Dr. Eppley, I am sending you photos of my eye. I will let you know that about 13 years ago I went to a surgeon and he said it was the eye lid that was at fault and ‘drooping’, I did not agree, but I was 22 and I went with it in a desperate state to ‘fix’ it. He said he ‘crimped’ a muscle of my right eye lid and it did lift it but it looked even more obvious as it was not the fault of the eye lid. I can tell you this, and it sounds strange, but I know it to be true. When I was very young, I remember sleeping on my right side and the pillow was pushing against my eye ball and I remember thinking that I should not sleep like this, yet I did, and I didn’t move the entire night. In the morning my parents were very concerned and everyone at school noticed it and that is how it stayed. Years later I got eye lid surgery to ‘lift’ the eyelid. But i am VERY sure that the fault lays within the eye ball position and not the eye lid. I have looked, measured and worked out many things with my eye and I am beyond sure that it is the eye ball position in relation to the socket and the other eye that is off. You can clearly see that my left eye is flush against the ‘wall’ of the exterior [filling the entire area of lids upper and lower] and the right is somewhat ‘away’ from the outer corner, leaving a mm or 2 of ‘gap’. I want this fixed like no tomorrow. Now over to you and your expertise. Is this ‘fixable’?

A: Thank you for sending your pictures. In answer your question, I am first going to ignore what is a far more obvious deformity which is the difference in the horizontal position of the upper eyelids on the eyeball. You clearly had a right upper eyelid ptosis repair which has now left you with residual ptosis of the left upper eyelid which sits too low relative to the iris of the eye and asymmetric to the right upper eyelid. But since that is not your focus, let me address to what you are referring to.

Based on what I am seeing, the gap to which you refer at the corner of the right eye may or may not be due to the position of the eyeball. But the reality is that one can not move the eyeball from side to side so that is not a corrective option. To close that gap it would be far simpler to tighten or close down where the upper and lower eyelids meet by corner of lid tightening. That will bring the lid tissues in better approximation to the globe, thus eliminating the gap to which you refer.

Dr. Barry Eppley

Indianapolis,Indiana