Aging is a natural process that we all experience. It affects all of our major organ systems, but it’s often most noticeable when you look at your skin. Let’s look at how eyelids show signs of aging.

How Eyelids Show Signs of Aging

Over time, your skin’s natural production of collagen and elastin decreases. These changes can cause your skin to lose volume. They also make it more difficult for your skin to maintain its elasticity. The result is fine lines that eventually develop into wrinkles.

Due to the delicate nature of the skin around your eyes, your eyelids are often the first place that you will see the initial signs of aging.

What Causes Skin to Age?

In addition to the natural changes that come with age, your skin may show additional signs of wear and tear if it has been regularly exposed to common forms of damage. Examples include UV radiation, dehydration, poor nutrition, rubbing, and smoking.

Over a period of decades, these kinds of damage may result in other signs of aging. Discoloration, uneven texture, and exacerbated wrinkling are common side effects.

In both the case of natural aging and exaggerated aging, there are, fortunately, steps you can take to care for your skin and remove some of the signs of aging. Common treatments include laser therapies and topical applications with a board-certified dermatologist or plastic surgeon.

A Specific Look at Eyelids

Your eyes are surrounded by some of the most delicate tissue in your entire body. The skin is thin and vulnerable to damage. This vulnerability tends to result in your eyes showing the first signs of aging long before fine lines are visible anywhere else.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t stop there. As you continue to age, your eyelids and brows will continue to lose volume and elasticity. This can result in the upper eyelid becoming weighed down by heavy brows as the lower eyelid sags down towards the cheekbone.

Both of these changes can make you look significantly older, fatigued. And the upper eyelids may even get to the point where they impair your ability to fully open your eyes and see clearly.

While the early stages of aging eyelids may be a mostly cosmetic concern, there are circumstances in which aging eyelids do begin to negatively affect your quality of life.

Addressing Aging Eyelids

In the early stages of aging, there are plenty of non-surgical approaches you can take to address aging eyelids prior to considering cosmetic surgery in Houston. However, it is important to keep in mind that these treatments cannot halt the aging process.

Skin resurfacing, dermatological treatments, and improvements in your diet and lifestyle habits can help to reduce the appearance of aging and slow down the process in the future. They cannot stop the process entirely. And you will eventually get to a point where non-surgical treatments aren’t as effective as they used to be.

At the point where you’re seeing deeper wrinkles, heavy lids, or under-eye bags, it may be time to consider having cosmetic eyelid surgery in Houston.

Thinking About Eyelid Surgery

The cosmetic procedure that is used to address aging eyelids is called a blepharoplasty. The procedure can be used to address either the upper eyelid, the lower eyelid, or both.

Depending on your preferences and the suggestions of your cosmetic surgeon, a blepharoplasty may be limited to removing excess skin or it may include the removal of excess fat if the fat pads around your eyes are overly prominent.

In either case, the incisions can be expertly hidden. Your cosmetic surgeon places them inside the eyelid itself or along the crease. Within a few weeks to months of healing no one will ever be able to tell you had plastic surgery.