Title: Blepharoplasty Cost: One Name, Three Different Operations
Author: Arthur Harmash
Published: 2026-09-29 (updated 2026-09-30)
Source: https://lymyvoyage.com/articles/eyelid-surgery-three-operations
Citations:
- https://www.isaps.org/media/razfvmsk/isaps-global-survey-2024.pdf
- https://www.plasticsurgery.org/documents/news/statistics/2025/plastic-surgery-statistics-report-2025.pdf
- https://eyewiki.org/Asian_Blepharoplasty_(Double_Eyelid_Procedure)
- https://www.cms.gov/medicare-coverage-database/view/lcd.aspx?LCDId=34411
- https://www.cms.gov/medicare-coverage-database/view/lcd.aspx?LCDId=36286
- https://www.plasticsurgery.org/cosmetic-procedures/eyelid-surgery/cost
- https://www.carecredit.com/well-u/health-wellness/blepharoplasty-cost-eyelid-surgery-cost-blepharoplasty-financing/
- https://www.seouleyeplastics.com/blog/double-eyelid-surgery-cost-in-korea
- https://www.euroistanbul.com/eyelid-surgery-blepharoplasty-all-inclusive-package/
- https://www.koreaherald.com/article/10633779
- https://www.isaps.org/discover/about-isaps/global-statistics/global-survey-2024-full-report-and-press-releases/
- https://www.koreabiomed.com/news/articleView.html?idxno=28501
---
In 2024, eyelid surgery became the most common cosmetic operation in the world. The International Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery counted 2,115,360 of them, up 13.4% on the year.[^1] It displaced liposuction, which had held the top spot for years.
Then look at where those operations happened. In Japan, eyelid surgery is 36.8% of all cosmetic surgery. In the United States, the country performing more cosmetic procedures than any other, it is under 6%.[^1] A ranking that swings that far between countries is usually a sign that the category, rather than the operation, is doing the work.
Eyelid surgery is the world's most common cosmetic operation. In Japan it is 37% of all cosmetic surgery. In the United States, under 6%. Same operation?
A global number one is useful to whoever sells the operation. It travels well in marketing. Nothing in it says which version of the operation you would be buying, or why the share differs sixfold between two rich countries.
The survey that produced the ranking asked its own surgeons a revealing question: what share of your eyelid operations were Asian eyelid surgery? The median answer was zero. The average was 16.1%.
The anatomy behind that split is documented. About half of people of Asian descent have no crease in the upper eyelid. One operation creates a crease that was never there. The other removes loose skin from a crease that already exists.
There is a third operation using the same name, and in America insurance pays for it. Medicare's rules turn on measurements. Whether the lid restricts the field of vision to about 30 degrees, and whether the lid margin sits 2 millimetres or less from the centre of the cornea's light reflex.
Flying for it saves less than you would expect. A Seoul clinic quotes $3,000 to $5,000 for the full incisional version. The American surgeon's fee for an upper eyelid operation averages $3,359.
None of this proves any of the three operations is more common than the others. The survey extrapolates from 2,975 surgeons. The 16.1% is what surgeons reported about their own practices, not a count of operations. And South Korea gets no country page at all.
One name, three operations, and three different reasons for having one. The ranking is real. It is a ranking of a word.
## The ranking that does not survive contact with the countries
The global figure comes from the International Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery, which surveys aesthetic plastic surgeons worldwide and projects national and global totals from the responses.[^11] Its 2024 edition put eyelid surgery first among surgical procedures at 2,115,360, or 12.1% of all cosmetic surgery worldwide.[^1] Liposuction came second at 2,087,189, having fallen 12.6%.[^1]
That first place is thinner than it looks in one other way. Among men, eyelid surgery is the most common operation worldwide, at 489,763. Among women it is second, at 1,625,597, behind liposuction's 1,792,323.[^1] The global number one is number one because it leads one of the two lists and comes close on the other.
The longer trend is real, though. Eyelid surgery stood at 1,225,540 operations in 2020, so the 2024 figure is 72.6% higher.[^1] Liposuction over the same four years rose 36.8%.[^1]
The society also publishes a page per country, and that is where the ranking comes apart.
Japan reported 140,000 eyelid operations against a surgical total of 380,000. That is 36.8% of everything, and eyelid surgery is Japan's most common cosmetic operation by a wide margin. Rhinoplasty is second at 40,400.[^1]
Chinese Taipei, the label the survey uses for Taiwan, reported 68,473 eyelid operations out of 257,480. That is 26.6%.[^1]
Now the other direction. The United States reported 114,030 eyelid operations against a surgical total of 1,999,528, which works out at 5.7%. Eyelid surgery ranks sixth there, behind liposuction, breast augmentation, scar revision, abdominoplasty and breast lift.[^1] Brazil, which performs more cosmetic surgery than any other country, put eyelid surgery third at 9.8%.[^1] Türkiye had it second, at 10.4%, behind rhinoplasty.[^1]
The American Society of Plastic Surgeons counts the United States separately and reaches the same conclusion about rank. Its 2025 report puts eyelid surgery fifth among American cosmetic operations, behind liposuction, breast augmentation, tummy tuck and breast lift.[^2] Two professional bodies, two survey methods, and neither has eyelid surgery anywhere near the top in the country doing the most procedures.
## Three operations, one name
The category holds at least three distinct operations, and the survey that produced the ranking says so itself.
Buried in its additional statistics, the society asked surgeons what percentage of their eyelid surgeries were "Asian Eyelid Surgeries (all kinds, double folds, epicanthus correction)". The median answer was 0.0%. The average was 16.1%.[^1]
The survey asked its surgeons what share of their eyelid operations were Asian eyelid surgery. The median answer was zero. The average was 16.1%.[^1]
A median of zero with an average of 16.1% is not a middling picture. It means most responding surgeons do none of this operation and a minority do a great deal of it. The global total is the sum of two largely separate populations of surgeons.
**The first operation creates a crease.** EyeWiki is a reference published by the American Academy of Ophthalmology. It describes Asian blepharoplasty as a procedure to provide a crease above the eyelid's tarsal plate. It puts the share of people of Asian descent without an upper eyelid crease at about 50%.[^3] Estimates of that share differ between studies and populations, and about 50% is the figure EyeWiki states.
The anatomy is specific. Where a crease exists, the tendon that lifts the lid fuses with the membrane behind it roughly 8 to 10 millimetres above the upper lid border. Where it does not, that fusion sits lower and fat extends further down.[^3]
**The second removes skin from a crease that is already there.** That is the ageing-lid operation, and it is what the American figures mostly describe.
**The third is not cosmetic at all.** Medicare covers eyelid surgery when the lid interferes with sight. The coverage policy currently in force for seven southeastern states was last revised on 20 May 2021. It sets the test as a margin reflex distance of 2.0 millimetres or less.[^4]
That distance is measured from the light reflex at the centre of the cornea to the upper lid margin, with the brows relaxed. An alternative test is a difference of at least 12 degrees between the field of vision at rest and the field with the lid held up by hand.[^4]
A retired policy from a different Medicare contractor stated the field restriction in plainer terms. The lid had to restrict vision, in the policy's words, to "approximately 30 degrees or less from fixation".[^5] That document was withdrawn on 16 October 2025, so it describes how the rule was written rather than how it reads now.
The same retired policy is blunt about the lower lid. Lower eyelid surgery "is almost never functional in nature and is considered a non-covered procedure", it says, with appeals allowed case by case.[^5]
## What eyelid surgery costs, and what the price covers
Each figure is in the currency its source published, with no exchange rate applied.
| Source and country | Price | What it covers |
|---|---|---|
| American Society of Plastic Surgeons, US[^6] | $3,359 upper eyelid; $3,876 lower eyelid | Surgeon's fee only. The Society states it excludes anaesthesia, operating room facilities and other related expenses. |
| 2024 Synchrony cost study via CareCredit, US[^7] | $4,451 national average; $3,304-$8,054 upper; $3,234-$8,005 lower | Procedure cost. Excludes prescriptions and any complications the surgeon encounters. |
| Sinsa L Plastic Surgery, Seoul[^8] | $1,000-$2,500 non-incisional; $3,000-$5,000 full incisional | Surgeon's fee, operating room, basic anaesthesia, follow-up visits, suture removal. Extra for pre-operative tests, ptosis correction, epicanthoplasty and an interpreter. |
| Euro Istanbul Clinic, Turkey[^9] | EUR 1,950 upper; EUR 2,450 lower; EUR 2,900 both | Package. One day in hospital, three hotel nights with breakfast, drivers, an interpreter, travel insurance. |
Two things stand out. The first is that the saving on this operation is thin. Seoul's full incisional price of $3,000 to $5,000 straddles the American surgeon's fee of $3,359, and the American fee excludes the operating room and anaesthetic that the Seoul quote includes.[^6][^8] Turkey is genuinely cheaper, at EUR 1,950 for the upper lids with a hotel included.[^9]
The second is that the lower lid costs more than the upper in three of the four sources, and it is the half insurance will not touch.[^5][^6][^9] Anyone comparing an eyelid quote against an American average needs to know which lid is in it.
## What the headline numbers leave out
**The global survey is an extrapolation, and its base changed.** The 2024 figures come from 2,975 surgeons, against 1,600 the year before. Thirty-two locations were reported individually, against 23 previously.[^1]
The society says plainly that the broader base has influenced some worldwide procedure totals. It also notes that new procedures were added to the form, and that this may affect comparability with earlier years.[^1] So the 13.4% rise in eyelid surgery sits on a survey whose respondent count grew by 86% over the same period.
**The 16.1% is a self-report, not a count.** Surgeons were asked to estimate a share of their own practice. Nothing in the report turns that estimate into a count. So there is no published figure for how many of the 2,115,360 were crease-creating operations.
**South Korea has no country page.** The report ranks it fifth in the world by estimated number of plastic surgeons, at 2,808 of a global 58,506.[^1] Its procedures-by-location section still has no Korean page. The United States, Brazil, Japan, Türkiye and Chinese Taipei all get one.[^1]
So the country most associated with eyelid surgery is absent from the country-level data, and nothing in the report explains the omission.
**Two US counts of the same year disagree.** The global survey put American eyelid surgery at 114,030 in 2024.[^1] The American Society of Plastic Surgeons put it at 100,185 for the same year.[^2] The gap is about 14%. The two survey different populations of surgeons by different methods, and neither is a census, so this is two estimates rather than a correction of one by the other.
**The categories are loose in places.** Scar revision appears third in the American surgical list at 190,854 operations, ahead of eyelid surgery.[^1] Whatever else it is, a scar revision is not an aesthetic choice in the same sense as creating an eyelid crease, and it sits in the same total.
**A price quoted in Korea is now 10% higher than an older guide implies.** Korea's value-added tax refund for foreign cosmetic patients ended on 31 December 2025, as reported by The Korea Herald and Korea Biomedical Review.[^10][^12] Clinic price pages written before that date, including the one used here, do not mention it.[^8]
## How to use these numbers
Before comparing any eyelid quote with any average, settle three things. Which operation it is, upper or lower or both, and whether a crease is being created or a crease is being tidied. Whether the price includes the room and the anaesthetic. And which year and which survey the average you are comparing against came from.
If the reason for the surgery is that the lid blocks your vision, the sequence is different. Ask for a visual field test and the margin reflex measurement first, in your own country, because those two measurements are what a claim turns on.[^4] Flying somewhere and paying cash for the same operation forfeits the one version of it that somebody else might pay for.
And treat a global ranking of "eyelid surgery" as a ranking of the phrase. Two rich countries differ by a factor of six on how much of their surgery it accounts for, which tells you the word covers more than one thing.
[^1]: https://www.isaps.org/media/razfvmsk/isaps-global-survey-2024.pdf — International Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery, "ISAPS International Survey on Aesthetic/Cosmetic Procedures Performed in 2024" (published Jun 2025). Accessed Sep 29, 2026.
[^2]: https://www.plasticsurgery.org/documents/news/statistics/2025/plastic-surgery-statistics-report-2025.pdf — American Society of Plastic Surgeons, "2025 Procedural Statistics Release" (published Sep 2026). Accessed Sep 29, 2026.
[^3]: https://eyewiki.org/Asian_Blepharoplasty_(Double_Eyelid_Procedure) — American Academy of Ophthalmology, EyeWiki, "Asian Blepharoplasty (Double Eyelid Procedure)" (last edited Jul 21, 2026). Accessed Sep 29, 2026.
[^4]: https://www.cms.gov/medicare-coverage-database/view/lcd.aspx?LCDId=34411 — Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, Local Coverage Determination L34411, "Blepharoplasty, Eyelid Surgery, and Brow Lift", issued by Palmetto GBA (revision effective May 20, 2021). Accessed Sep 29, 2026.
[^5]: https://www.cms.gov/medicare-coverage-database/view/lcd.aspx?LCDId=36286 — Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, Local Coverage Determination L36286, "Blepharoplasty, Eyelid Surgery, and Brow Lift", issued by Noridian Healthcare Solutions (revision effective Oct 1, 2019; retired Oct 16, 2025). Accessed Sep 29, 2026.
[^6]: https://www.plasticsurgery.org/cosmetic-procedures/eyelid-surgery/cost — American Society of Plastic Surgeons, "Eyelid Surgery Cost". Accessed Sep 29, 2026.
[^7]: https://www.carecredit.com/well-u/health-wellness/blepharoplasty-cost-eyelid-surgery-cost-blepharoplasty-financing/ — CareCredit (Synchrony), "How Much Does Blepharoplasty (Eyelid Surgery) Cost?" by Stephanie Dwilson (published May 16, 2025), citing the 2024 Synchrony Average Procedural Cost Study conducted by ASQ360° Market Research. Accessed Sep 29, 2026.
[^8]: https://www.seouleyeplastics.com/blog/double-eyelid-surgery-cost-in-korea — Sinsa L Plastic Surgery, Gangnam, Seoul, "Double Eyelid Surgery Cost in Korea: Price Range & What Affects Cost" (published Dec 25, 2025). Accessed Sep 29, 2026.
[^9]: https://www.euroistanbul.com/eyelid-surgery-blepharoplasty-all-inclusive-package/ — Euro Istanbul Clinic, "Eyelid Surgery (Blepharoplasty) All-Inclusive Package" (last modified Aug 11, 2026). Accessed Sep 29, 2026.
[^10]: https://www.koreaherald.com/article/10633779 — The Korea Herald, "Will end of Korea's aesthetics VAT refund drive medical tourists away?" by Lim Jae-seong (published Dec 10, 2025). Accessed Sep 29, 2026.
[^11]: https://www.isaps.org/discover/about-isaps/global-statistics/global-survey-2024-full-report-and-press-releases/ — International Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery, "Global Survey 2024: Full Report and Press Releases" (published Jun 19, 2025). Accessed Sep 29, 2026.
[^12]: https://www.koreabiomed.com/news/articleView.html?idxno=28501 — Korea Biomedical Review, "Korea to scrap VAT refund for foreign cosmetic surgery patients, sparking tourism backlash" (published Aug 5, 2025), citing the Ministry of Economy and Finance announcement of Jul 31, 2025. Accessed Sep 29, 2026.