Epicanthoplasty and the Epicanthal Fold

Reviewed By: Dr. Buonassisi

Epicanthoplasty and the Epicanthal Fold

Video transcript: Epicanthoplasty is the reshaping of the epicanthal fold. This fold is a web of skin that occurs in the medial corner or in the corner of the eye closest to the nose and the web of skin covers or partially covers the lacrimal duct. That’s a structure in the corner of the eye that collects tears.

In some people their epicanthal fold may be more prominent than others or maybe if its not particularly prominent they’d like to make it smaller.

The epicanthoplasty is a procedure we do to soften that web or epicanthal fold. Most people have a certain degree of epicanthal folding. Sometimes the degree of epicanthal fold is quite prominent and in those cases patients will often request an epicanthoplasty to convert from a fairly prominent fold to a little less prominent fold.

It’s not possible to get rid of it completely. I think you have to take into consideration the degree or the severity of the fold, obviously someone with a very small or not very visible epicanthal fold, I generally don’t recommend trying to modify that.