The size of the palpebral fissure

 

 The size of the eye opening is measured with the width and height of the palpebral fissure. As I have discussed in the previous article published on D&PS magazine, “Why do Korean women want the double eyelids?, “ Korean women do not simply want an extra fold in their eyelid but actually want larger and clearly defined eyes. I previously explained that Asian peoples’ aesthetic desire or beauty perception on attractive eyes should be defined not as simply that Asian peoples want larger eyes like those of Caucasian’s. It must be defined aand perceived by aesthetic plastic surgeons as they absolutely want so called “vivid and brilliant” eyes. The palpebral fissure height and width  are such a deciding factor determining the attractiveness of the eye that most people prefer.  The palpebral fissure measurements of each race and ethnicity are provided in Images 4-7.

 

Most previous studies have measured  the greatest width or height of the palpebral fissure alone. . However, considering the popularity and importance of  aesthetic surgical procedures such as medial epicanthoplasty and lateral canthopexy, and lateral canthoplasty, nowadays, I  am much convinced that additional or some detailed photogrammetricmeasurement  are essentially needed. I measured the medial, central, and lateral height of palpebral fissure and it is a routine step in Asiansto produce aesthetically pleasing results after blepharoplalsty. I want to address the details of my measurement research as below paragraphs. 

 

Image 4. Medial palpebral fissure height (mm). 

 

As shown in Image 4, the medial palpebral fissure height was 4.7mm in an average Korean face, whereas it was 6.31mm and 6.42mm in an attractive Korean face and attractive Asian face, respectively, showing that Attractive Asians have a  large palpebral fissure height in respective of that of average faces. On the contrary, the height of the medial palpebral fissure was  smaller in attractive Caucasians or Blacks compared to their average counterparts. Based on my data, the ideal height of the medial palpebral fissure in an attractive face in Asians, Caucasians and Blacks is about 6.5±0.2mm.

 

The most effective method of enlarging the medial palpebral fissure is the surgery of medial epicanthoplasty. In upper eyelid blepharoplasty, procedure for increasing the height of the medial palpebral fissure and correcting the medial sagging of the upper eyelid, which is the same procedure of removing ‘Mongolian folds’, has great aesthetic importance in Asian blepharoplasty.  This is a very important and different anatomic and perceptional preference between Asians and Caucasians. Average Asians want a wider medial palpebral fissure. On the contrary,  Caucasian and Black peoples tend to regard that smaller and sharp eyes having narrower medial palpebral fissure are as much more attractive.  

 

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Image 5. Median palpebral fissure height (mm).

 

As shown in Image 5, the median height of the palpebral fissure also differs depending on the racial characteristics. The median palpebral fissure height  was 8.62mm, whereas it was much higher in attractive Koreans or Asians (10.88mm and 12.46mm, respectively). However, attractive Blacks (9.83mm) or Caucasians (10.12mm) had smaller median palpebral fissure height (average Caucasian face: 10.72mm, average Black face: 10.81mm). This shows that Koreans have high aesthetic preferences on larger eyes,  whereas Blacks or Caucasians prefer smaller eyes, showing there  are different beauty preferences about attractive eyes among different races.

 

-To be continued