When I meet people in a casual setting, too often, peoples eyes glaze over when I tell them what I do. The official explanation is quite long and complicated: I am an oculoplastic surgeon; an ophthalmologist with subspecialty training in surgery around the eyes, the eyelids, tear ducts, and bones. Oculoplastic surgeons are like oral surgeons?they are dentists who no longer work on the teeth, but around the teeth. We oculoplastic surgeons are eye surgeons who do not work on eyes, but the areas around the eyes.
Too often, peoples eyes glaze over before I reach the end of the speech. My simple answer these days is I fix faces. If my casual acquaintance expresses interest, I may continue with the abbreviated explanation?I am a plastic surgeon specialized in the eyelids and around the eyes. But then the phrase plastic surgeon to most people means cosmetic surgeon. So then I have to explain that half of what I do is fixing things that are broken, like eyelids not opening (ptosis) or turning in our out (entropion or ectropion), or taking out skin cancers or other tumors around or behind the eye, or fixing teary eyes caused by blocked tear ducts, or fixing the bulging eyes of thyroid disease. And the other half of what I do is making people look younger, or prettier, or both.
So for those who want a quick answer and aren’t interested enough to get the long answer, I find that I fix faces does the trick.
Comments are closed.