If you Google "how to treat tired or heavy-looking eyes," you'll come across a plethora of suggestions on how to rejuvenate or lift your eyes. From cool cucumbers to concealers to eye creams, most of which do not deliver what they promise, to be honest! But what about under-eye filler or Botox?
These two non-surgical cosmetic procedures seem to have become a jack-of-all-trades, promising to fix almost any problem that makes your face (including your eyes) look tired and older.
To find out how true that is, let us take a quick look at the most common cosmetic complaints concerning the eye area and reveal what fillers and Botox can and can not.
Botox for Hooded Eyes
What are hooded eyes? This condition occurs when excess skin folds down from the brow bone to the lash line, partially or completely covering your eye crease. This can make your eyes look tired as well as make it difficult to apply makeup properly.
The causes of a hooded eye can range from age-related sagging of the facial muscles to nerve damage to genetics. In the case of ageing, the muscles that support the eyebrows start to sag as you get older. As the eyebrows droop, they push down on the soft tissue and fat that covers the eye socket, creating a hooded effect over the eyelid.
The question is: What can you do to correct age-related eye hooding aside from surgery?
This is where Botox for hooded eyes comes. Especially if the hooded eyes are due to low eyebrow position, Botox can help lift the outer tail of the eyebrow. Tiny amounts of Botox are injected into the lower forehead and outer tails of the eyebrows. This paralyzes the depressor muscle which causes the eyebrows to droop without affecting the elevator muscles that raise the brows.
The overall effect is lifting the eyebrow area by a few millimeters, revealing more eyelid skin and making your eyes look more open.
However, if your eyes are hooded due to significant excess skin on the eyelids, Botox might not be the best option. In this case, upper eyelid surgery - or blepharoplasty might be the right option. As always, it's best to schedule a consultation with a reputable aesthetics doctor who will review the anatomy behind your hooded eyes and recommend the best treatment option.
Botox for Dynamic Under-Eye Wrinkles
But for most people, eye wrinkles are the bane of facial beauty. They tend to make you look tired and older than you are. To make matters worse, the skin around the eyes is very thin compared to the rest of the face, so changes under the eyes become visible early.
In fact, wrinkles under the eyes often appear as early as your late 20s to early 30s. This is due to something we all can not do without - facial expressions. When you smile or squint, you move the muscles in your face. As the facial muscle contract and relax, lines and creases form on the overlying skin.
When this happens repeatedly, which is usually the case, it leaves a pattern of creases on your face. These are called dynamic wrinkles. Crow's feet, which form near the outer corners of the eyes, are a perfect example of dynamic wrinkles.
Because of the loss of elasticity and the takeover of gravity over the years, dynamic wrinkles can eventually become static. This kind of wrinkle remains visible even when your facial muscles are at rest.
Related: Dynamic vs. Static Wrinkles
However, there are steps you can take to prevent this from happening in the first place. Botox has become a household name for its ability to treat dynamic wrinkles. By relaxing these muscles and limiting their activity, the treatment temporarily reduces or eliminates dynamic wrinkles and creates a more youthful appearance. Since the eye area is delicate, you need a personalized treatment plan based on your unique anatomy and the depth of your under-eye wrinkles.
Learn more about this treatment here.
Tear Trough Filler For Under Eye Circles, Folds, and Hollowing
Dark Circles
Dark circles under the eyes mean that the area of skin underneath your eyes looks darkened.
Depending on your natural skin color, this area may appear in shades of blue, purple, brown or black. Dark circles under the eyes often make you look tired or older than you are. This condition has many possible causes. However, they are not usually a symptom of a medical problem. Still, most people want to lighten their dark circles for cosmetic reasons. But if your dark circles are caused by hyperpigmentation of your skin, the filler will only worsen them!
Do not know how to tell? Hold a mirror and look up so that the bright light from above is shining directly on you. If the color is still there, the skin is pigmented, and using a filler is not the best solution.
If the shadow disappears, the dark circle is a result of aging. As you age, the skin under your eyes begins to sag and thin, creating a hollow effect. In this case, it may not be a 'dark circle' at all, but a shadow caused by puffy eyelids or a hollowing under the eyes. Treat the depression with tear trough filler, and the dark circles will disappear, rejuvenating your eyes.
Sunken Eyes & Wrinkles Under the eyes
Sunken eyes, also known as under-the-eye hollows, skeletonized eyes, or enophthalmos, is a condition where the skin around your eyes appears sunken or pulled inward. The eyeball retracts into the eye socket, making the eyes appear heavy, worn, and hollow.
Unlike dark circles, this can also be a sign of underlying eye diseases and other syndromes. In most cases, however, it is an age-related problem. As skin ages, it tends to lose subcutaneous volume as the epidermis thins, elastic tissue weakens, and collagen in the dermis breaks down.
One of the first places where this loss is particularly noticeable is the skin under the eyes. The loss of support and structure can also cause wrinkles and fine lines to form in the skin under the eyes. In addition, skin atrophy and loss of orbital fat tissue cause the eyes to sink back into the sockets, giving them a sunken appearance.
The good news is fillers (specifically HA fillers) can reverse this hollowing and wrinkling. This will completely rejuvenate the eye area and take years off your face.
Fillers for the eye area are injected into the sunken area under each eye. Hyaluronic acid (HA), the main ingredient in the filler, is highly hydrophilic, meaning it attracts and stores a lot of water. As a result, HA fills in the area under the eye, plumping it up and smoothing out fine lines, wrinkles, and folds without altering your natural appearance.
