Tear troughs are a groove extending from the inner eye corner,  downward and outwards and causing hollowing or dark shadows under the eyes, or in severe cases, the appearance of eye bags. They create a hollow at the junction between the lower eyelid and the cheek. Often tear troughs formation are genetic 

Bags under eyes — mild swelling or puffiness under the eyes — are common as you age. With aging, the tissues around your eyes, including some of the muscles supporting your eyelids, weaken. Normal fat that helps support the eyes can then move into the lower eyelids, causing the lids to appear puffy. Fluid also may accumulate in the space below your eyes, adding to the swelling.

Dermal fillers can help to smooth the transition between the lower eyelid and the cheeks, and make the appearance of tear troughs or eye bags less obvious.

As we age, there are 3 main reasons tear troughs form:

• Skin – the skin looses its elasticity Loss of Skin elasticity
• Volume loss – we lose our fat pads which usually  gives volume and support to the eye area.
• Skull changes – the eye socket becomes larger  and the cheekbone reduces in  size with less cushioning around the eye.

Other contributing factors include genetics, pigmentation, lack of sleep and lifestyle. As we mature in years the malar fat pad which is adjacent to the nose and below the eye shrinks and drops and this causes fat reduction under the eye, causing darkening in the area and a loss of volume.

The darkness under the eyes  is often caused by shadowing of the underlying muscle and blood vessels which shows through the semi-translucent skin

It is important not to use too much filler in this area due to the risk of over inflation.Ideally we under correct the area with dermal filler to allow the dermal filler to slowly absorb water over the next two to four weeks. This gradually plumps up the area.

Dermal fillers can gently inflate the area under the eye to either soften the hollowing or lessen the darkness by thickening up the layers between the darker underlying muscle and the thin skin overlying the muscle.

In effect, it replaces the missing subcutaneous fat that has lessened over time with the retraction and thinning of the underlying fat pad. It also can smooth the sharp demarcation between the bulging bag under the eye and the adjoining skin, which softens the junction between the two areas. The exact amount of water absorption in this arrives difficult to predict and therefore we do try to advise all patients to underfill, as an improvement, not ‘perfection’ can only be expected.

All injections into the skin are at risk of bruising and swelling.

Overcorrection  of the under eye area can lead increased absorption of water into the dermal filler which can create in itself a swelling and exacerbate the bagginess.

The good news is that in the unlikely event of this occurring, we have an “antidote” that  can be injected into the area to dissolve the product within a matter of days.

A very rare  serious side effect is blindness when treating around the eye area.

Often people expect tear trough treatment to be very painful, because of the close proximity to the eye. Our expert injectors ensure your experience is as pain free as possible. They use injection techniques to making  tear trough treatment very much more comfortable. 

The procedure often only takes between  15  – 30 minutes to complete.