What Causes Eyelids to Age?
Author: Sean Younai
Category: Health
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Like so many of our features, the eyes are subject to your genetic history. How many times have you heard someone say that they look into the mirror and "see my mother looking back at me"? Other factors include sun damage, smoking, stretching from obesity, blinking and rubbing and just plain aging.
Consequently, the excess upper eyelid skin hangs over the normal lid crease and even starts to impinge on the eyelashes. This results in eyes that appear smaller and more tired looking. You might also feel heaviness and drooping in your upper eyelids after reading for a short time.
The medical term for the aging of the eyes is called Blepharochalasia which is characterized by excess eyelid skin, lax eyelid muscles, and excessively protruding fat pockets.
Blepharoptosis is another term which refers to the abnormal sagging or dropping of the upper eyelids, which gives people the appearance of sleepy eyes. Blepharoptosis is in fact a functional eyelid dysfunction characterized by the inability of the upper eyelids to keep open fully and to lift up when gazing up.
Blepharoplasty is the surgical procedure designed to correct Blepharochalasia, or aging eyelids. It does not correct Blepharoptosis or sagging of the upper eyelids.
How about the lower eyelids? Usually, by a person's late thirties or early forties, the thin skin of the eyelids begins to lose its elasticity. Collagen in the skin decreases, and the thinning of the skin causes the underlying fat to show. Additionally, the soft tissues of your cheek and of the middle of your face lose tone, and become subject to gravity. When this happens, imperfections in the lower eyelids become more noticeable, and bulges and bags appear.
Unlike the popular belief that lower eyelid bags only develop as a result of aging or sun damage; there are many young people who suffer from baggy lower eyelids or Blepharochalasia. In fact, these people are quick to show photos with the lower eyelid bags that they had as teenagers. This excess bulging of lower eyelid fat in a young person is not caused by aging, but is a congenital deformity commonly known as "herniated orbital fat"- or the hernia-like bulging of the fat out of the eye socket.
Dr. Sean Younai is a Board Certified Plastic Surgeon Los Angeles who is very experienced in facial plastic surgery, especially that of facelift, rhinoplasty and eyelid surgery. At the California Center for Plastic Surgery Dr. Sean Younai receives patients from the Northern as well as the Southern California region, including cities such as Beverly Hills, Los Angeles, Santa Monica, Hollywood, Burbank, Pasadena, Glendale, Valencia, Palmdale, Fresno, Bakersfield, Oxnard, Santa Barbara, San Francisco, East Bay, San Jose, and Stockton.
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Keywords: Blepharoplasty, lower eyelids, Blepharochalasia, Plastic Surgeon Los Angeles
View Count: 108
Date Submitted: 2/12/2009
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