Puffy eyes are often caused by excessive fluid retention or swelling around the eyes. This can be caused by things as simple as late nights, lack of rest, or excessive crying after watching Korean dramas, to medical problems such as allergies. Hormones also play a part – you may feel that your eyes become more puffy during that time of the month, or during pregnancy. These are temporary, and the puffiness often gets better by themselves.
The other common cause of Puffiness is everyone’s great enemy : AGEING.
With advancing age, the fat which cushions our eye balls start to protrude outwards; giving rise to fat-containing
eye-bags. The best solution to this is surgery to remove the excess fat, but in my practice, I have also used
fillers successfully to improve the problem for people who opt for a non-surgical alternative.
I often have many young patients coming to me complaining of the problem. They often lament that the have had puffy eyes all their lives, and that no creams seem to help! In many of these patients, the ‘puffiness’ is actually caused by a bulging muscle under the eyes. This condition, known as a hypertrophic pre-tarsal obicularis muscle, causes the the area under the eye to bunch up, especially when we smile, resulting in a puffy appearance.
My patients are quite right when they tell me that no creams seem to work: there are no that creams will reduce muscle size. In fact, the only treatment which works, is Botox. With a few simple injections, we cause Botox to reduce the size of the offending muscle.
The results are often very impressive. They last about half a year, but it definitely beats spending hundreds of dollars on creams that do not work!
