I have eye bags.
I sleep only 4-5 hours a night, but not sure if that is contributing to my eye bags.
I also have under eye wrinkles and crow's feet when I smile.
Are there any effective non surgical interventions?
Thank you for your question!
You're asking about several things that typically affect the under eye area so eyebags, wrinkles
and crow's feet lines.
And so your question is there a non-surgical way to treat these.
Well, we'll start with the eyebags.
And based on the photos that you sent, they eyebags to me appear to be something called
lower eyelid fat prolapse.
Now, what that means is that the fat pockets that are normally around your eyes have pushed
forward.
And by causing the pushing forward to occur, the bags are always there.
And if you have done as many as my patients do, is basically look for under eye creams
and solutions that are guaranteed to get rid of bags.
And I'm sure you'll observe that they don't work because they work topically when the
problem is internal.
So there's no non-surgical way to get rid of bags under the eyes.
There is, in our practice, that is commonly employed a minimally invasive approach to
camouflage the bags such as the use of Restylane or a hyaluronic acid adjacent to the bag at
the tear trough area.
But my recommendation for someone who has lower eyelid fat prolapse is to do something
called a blepharoplasty and when there's no excess skin, I do something called a transconjunctival
blepharoplasty.
That means taking out the fat pockets from the inside of the eyelids.
Now, that may sound very invasive or traumatic to you but I actually made it a mission in
my practice and doing this for 20 years, it's been quite successful.
For people who are surgery phobic or are in the camp "Don't believe in surgery" or "Don't
want having surgery", what I've done essentially in my practice made it easy for people like
a doctor's office visit.
Where they come to our office, they're not in the hospital and we have our own facility
and essentially, with a little bit of local anesthesia and a little bit of IV sedation,
we're able to take care of the fat pockets and do a more definitive treatment.
So many people have spent so much money and time injecting and doing all kinds of things
to try to avoid surgery and unfortunately, and sometimes their doctors playing into that
fear and selling more and more injectables.
I think that if you have a problem, you need to find solution and if you try to work around
it, you end up not fully addressing it in the best way you can.
So I say that's the solution for your lower eyelid fat prolapse.
As far as the lines and wrinkles concern, technically, you don't need surgery for that
kind of management.
Lines and wrinkles are a life-long management issue because as long as you're alive and
moving or smiling, you're going to have wrinkles.
So let's distinguish the two types of wrinkles.
One is dynamic wrinkles and that's where the crow's feet lines come in.
when you smile, the lines here form and they become deeper and when they become deep and
are present even when you don't smile, those are called static lines.
So in our practice, we routinely use dysport and botox to treat the crow's feet line areas
and those help minimize the appearance of those lines and reduces the permanence of
the skin of these lines.
Now for the fine lines under the eyes or the crisscross lines, we like to do a couple of
things.
The most conservative thing to start with is retinoids wether using Retin-A or any other
product that is by prescription.
Some of the over-the-counter products can have some pro-retinol or some metabolites
that do help the lines.
In our own practice, we do have our own retinol formula.
That's a good way to help cell turn-over to help improve the lines.
The reality is also that, unfortunately, retinoids have a tendency to dry the skin and some people
are sensitive to it so you should be mindful of that.
The rest of our tool of momentarily treating fine lines includes laser, radio frequency
such as Pelleve and Platelet-rich plasma which is drawn from your own blood and uses your
own growth factors to stimulate collagen.
So at this point, I think it's probably best for you to do some doctor shopping.
And get to know a doctor that kind of resonates with you and your personality and understands
what you're objectives are and you click with.
And once you do, come up with a plan that works for you.
You don't necessarily have to do everything at the same time but to me, the most dominant
problem that you have is the fat pocket.
So I would recommend addressing the fat pocket first.
So in summary, the fat pocket should be addressed first.
The fine lines and wrinkles can be treated non-invasively.
So I hope that was helpful and thank you for your question!