Dark Circles & Bags Under Your Eyelids

Many patients ask for help reducing or eliminating lower eyelid bags and dark circles under their eyes. Dark circles and eyelid bags can have a number of different causes. We take the time during your consultation to carefully evaluate and understand the causes so we can provide the best possible treatment options and results for your individual eyelid problem.

Excess Eyelid Fat
The orbit is the anatomical space behind and around the eye itself. The orbit contains fatty tissue that acts to cushion the eye from impact. As we age, the support structures that keep the fatty tissue behind the eye begin to weaken allowing the fat to move forward into the eyelids. This results in “fullness” or “puffiness,” which we call “bags” under the eyes, and is aesthetically unattractive and displeasing to most people because it makes you look tired and older. The best treatment option to remove the “bags” and smooth any “crepe” like skin is to use a lower eyelid blepharoplasty procedure. With lower eyelid blepharoplasty we can remove and or reposition the excess fat and puffiness and the excess skin can be trimmed and tightened at the same time to give the best result.

Hollowness in the Lower Eyelids
Dark circles under the eyes can also be caused by a depression or hollowness in the lower eyelids. Patients who have this problem can usually feel the underlying bone when the area of hollowness is touched. For many patients, we are able to treat the dark circles caused by hollowness in the lower eyelids with non surgical injections of volumizing gel fillers whose qualities make them appropriate for the delicate eye area. There are several types of gel filler we can use depending on the severity of hollowness and breadth of the area from which we wish to reduce the dark circles. For most patients having gel filler injections for dark circles provides 6-18 months of effect. Sometimes, the gel fillers are not sufficient to reduce or eliminate the dark circles and we will recommend a “fat repositioning” procedure to reduce the hollows under your eyes. This provides a very natural and permanent solution with excellent results.

Hyperpigmentation of Eyelid Skin
Another cause of dark circles under your eyes is having too much pigmentation of the skin. This is a much less common cause but it does occur. Often, patients might think they have hyperpigmentation but what they are seeing is actually the shadows from excess eyelid fat or hollowness at the orbital rim. If after examination and consultation patients do in fact have too much pigmentation of the eyelids we can use prescription bleaching creams that might be helpful.