Treating Dark Under-Eye Circles

Perhaps you’ve found that you look perpetually ragged and tired. Puffy eyes with dark circles underneath them tend to be telltale signs of a bad night’s sleep or rough week. However, many people have this appearance despite the fact that they sleep well and feel rested and awake. Dark under-eye circles are a problem that plague even the non-sleepy, and treating them is key to helping you look as alert as you feel.

In a survey, 53% of women attested that dark under-eye circles are their number one beauty woe. This is because a bruise-like appearance underneath the eyes is difficult, if not impossible, to get rid of. If you have acne, you can use medicated creams or even oral medicines. For those with thin eyelashes, special formulas are now on the market to help you regrow your lashes. However, the only thing that you can do about dark circles under your eyes is conceal them.

This is because most tired eyes aren’t the result of no sleep-they are actually a genetic problem that you can inherit from a parent. However, things like a lack of sleep, a hangover, and other such things can contribute to their appearance because these dehydrate your skin. This makes the already thin skin under your eyes look even thinner and more translucent, showing the blood vessels underneath.

If you have dark circles resulting from heredity, the problem is mostly caused by excessive pigmentation in the skin beneath your peepers. Like age spots and freckles, these areas of hyperpigmentation can draw negative attention to your face. Certain races tend to have even more problems with hyperpigmentation under the eyes, including African Americans, southeast Asians, and southern Italians.

Although we cannot control our genes, there are certain things that we can do to decrease the appearance of the shadows. First, keeping your skin bright and hydrated via lots of rest, water, and TLC can help hide the marks. Lessening puffy, swollen eyes can also make you look more awake. Some people rely on cool tea bags, cucumber slices, and even pieces of potatoes to cool and depuff the area of the skin around the eyes.

Sometimes, allergies can make dark circles worse because they dilate the blood vessels underlying the skin, leading to the bruised appearance. Blood can pool under the eyes, darkening the circles. Doctors can prescribe anti-histamines and other allergy medication to help alleviate your allergy problems and brighten up your eyes. The use of birth control pills can also dilate blood vessels and cause darkening.

Lastly, some doctors are using facial fillers as injections underneath the eyes. Although the FDA has not yet approved this novel use of facial injections, some people have reported excellent results. However, like the lifespan of injections in your face, you will probably need to get treatment every six months to maintain the appearance of bright eyes.

Your best bet to reduce the appearance of under-eye circles is to stay rested and hydrated. Get facial fillers only for FDA-approved areas of the face. For more information on the proper usage of facial injections, check out the board-certified facial cosmetic surgeon Dr Apostolakis today.