Cosmetic Plastic Surgery Articles

In an earlier post, I discussed how to go about restoring a more youthful appearance to aging eyes through cosmetic surgery. Here, I’ll get into a less invasive approach: under-eye dermal fillers.

As we age, those dark circles under our eyes become more pronounced. Doctors call them tear troughs. The skin around your eyes is thinner and paler and lacking the proper fat restores, so the indentations grow a little deeper, giving the eyes a more tired appearance, even if you feel as vibrant as you did 20 years ago.

It’s a pretty common issue. Everyone has a natural indentation above the rim of the bone that encircles the eye, but some are deeper than others. Thank your parents. Those dark circles can also be affected by sun exposure, allergies, dehydration, and insufficient sleep. So there are natural ways to stave them off, like wearing sunblock, staying hydrated, and getting enough sleep, but dark circles will still worsen as we age.

The wonder that is hyaluronic acid

Enter under-eye dermal fillers. They’re injectable treatments of hyaluronic acid—the most common brand names are Juvederm and Restylane —that stimulate the appearance of thicker fat pads under the skin.

Hyaluronic acid is a natural part of the skin’s dermis, but it diminishes as we age, which causes the undesired hollowing effect under the eyes. The hyaluronic acid in fillers helps pull water to the site of the injection, creating a plumper under-eye.

A series of injections are placed under your eyes. A topical numbing agent can be applied beforehand to ease any discomfort, but the injections are virtually painless. (It’s a very small needle.) In all, the procedure should only take about a half-hour. The cost starts around $300 with individually tailored treatment plans, and the results last up to a year.

The recovery is minimal: You’ll need to avoid intense exercise for the first 24 hours, and you may need to ice your under-eyes if you start to feel any discomfort around the injection sites. That should be the full extent of it.

Experience still matters

As simple as the procedure may sound, it’s important to find a board-certified plastic surgeon that has lots of experience injecting under the eyes.

No two fillers behave exactly the same way. So it’s crucial that the injector understands the differences between the products and the areas where they’re most appropriate. Use the wrong filler in the under-eye area and you’ll run the risk of creating an unnatural look or creating an even bigger problem.

The right product in the right hands, however, could restore years to your appearance in less than an hour.

As we anxiously await some more pleasant weather, it feels like the right time to discuss updating your skin protection regimen. It turns out, the sun isn’t the only threat, and you don’t even need to set foot outside to feel the effects of another.

I’m talking about blue light. The main source of our exposure to it is the sun, but we’re also getting our fill of it from our screens and indoor lighting. It’s been garnering increasing attention over the last few years after a few small but potentially groundbreaking studies came to light.

One found that exposing skin to the amount of blue light we get from the sun caused more pigment, redness, and swelling than when the same person’s skin was exposed to comparable levels of UVA rays. Another suggested that blue light might stimulate the production of free radicals in skin, which can speed up the appearance of aging.

Let’s unpack that and discuss what you can do about it.

How damaging is blue light, exactly?

Blue light isn’t all bad, actually. It helps regulate our natural sleep-wake cycle, for one. (Though, too much of it may make it more difficult to fall asleep.) It’s also been found to elevate mood and help memory and cognitive function.

But that early research I referenced doesn’t paint such an inviting picture. A lot more research still needs to be done before we can draw any meaningful conclusions, but the evidence so far does seem to suggest that it has the potential to be damaging to our skin.

Some of that has found that as blue light penetrates the skin, it leads to DNA damage, which spurs inflammation and the breakdown of healthy collagen and elastin, along with hyperpigmentation.

It’s still hard to say whether our screens produce enough blue light to cause serious skin damage. Though, it’s not hard to envision a scenario where the longer we spend on our devices, the worse off our skin might be. And make no mistake; we’re spending a lot of time on our devices. A 2016 report found that adults log more than 10 hours of screen time a day.

At least one prominent dermatologist has been quoted as saying, “Spending four eight-hour workdays in front of a computer screen exposes you to the same amount of energy as 20 minutes in the midday sun.”

What can you do about it?

Before we discuss your skin protection regimen, find the “night shift” (or “night mode”) setting on your phone and tablet and set it to run all the time. That’ll effectively disable the blue light emissions from those devices.

Now, as for your regimen, a quick search will yield lots of new topical antioxidants that are designed to boost our skin’s natural defense system against blue light and environmental stressors. I offer what I believe to be the most effective formula on the market, SkinMedica’s LUMIVIVE. It’s billed as “full atmospheric protection against blue light and pollution.”

LUMIVIVE is a two-step system. The Day Damage Defense Serum provides protection all day long while the Night Revitalize Repair Complex enhances the critical sleep-repair cycle. Together, they can offset the 10 hours, on average, we spend in front of a screen each day and restore your skin’s radiant glow within 14 days.

In time, it may become as essential as your broad-spectrum SPF.