What Plastic Surgery Procedures Are Best To Change The Shape And Look Of The Asian Face?

Q: I’m a 21 year-old female of Chinese descent. I want to narrow and sharp my nose tip and wings and make the nose bridge higher. In the upper eyelids, I want to take out the fat and make them more deep and wide. I also want to open my eyes in the inner canthal area. Lastly, I want to reduce cheek and jaw and augment the chin so that the face looks more narrow and longer. I know some of these are common to the  Asian face. I have provided some pictures for you to do computer imaging. Thank you very much!

A: Thank you for sending your pictures. I will do some imaging on them but I am limited as to what I can show because the quality of the picture and the angles from which they are taken are inadequate. The most useful photos for compiuter imaging are front and side views taken on a clean background (solid color wall or door) that are non-smiling.

In reference to your specific procedure requests: I can make the following comments:

1) Your nose reshaping/rhinoplasty requests are fairly standard for your ethnicity. Changing the nose by narrowing the tip and flare of the nostrils and making the bridge higher is common for this type of Asian rhinoplasty.

2) From an upper eyelid standpoint, you are referring to a double eyelid procedure with defatting and creating more of a prominent upper eyelid crease…which will make your eyes more wide or open looking. From an inner eye/canthus standpoint, you can get rid of the skin overhang with an epicanthoplasty but the scar trade-off must be carefully considered.

3) For facial narrowing, cheek and jaw angle reduction can be done from inside of the mouth. Whether this is best done by burring or oteotomy/ostectomy reduction is an issue for discussion.

4) The chin can be augmented with a specific female-type chin implant that makes it longer and comes to more of a point.

Dr. Barry Eppley

Indianapolis Indiana