Are Your Droopy Eyelids Impairing Your Vision?

Your eyelids play an important role in protecting your eye health and vision. With every blink, your eyelids bathe your eyes and help wash away tiny impurities and germs to keep your vision clear.

As we age, though, our eyelids can begin to sag and droop. Not only can sagging eyelids instantly age you, but if the sagging is severe, your eyelids can wind up blocking part of your vision. In some cases, sagging eyelids can even increase your risk of developing infections.

Rodrigo Belalcazar, MD, and his team at Advanced Eye Center in Hialeah, Florida, offer surgical and nonsurgical options for treating drooping eyelids. Correcting this issue can give you clearer vision, a more alert appearance, and take years off your face. If your droopy eyelids are impairing your vision, here’s how Dr. Belalcazar can help.

Why eyelids droop

While eyelid drooping can be present at birth, the most common cause is that underlying muscles and ligaments can start to droop and sag with age. Just as gravity and age-related tissue changes are at the root of facial wrinkles, they can also contribute to laxity in your eyelids. 

Less commonly, eyelid drooping can be caused by lid trauma or an underlying medical problem that affects the nerves or muscles. It’s also important to know that it’s not just the upper eyelids that can be affected by age or trauma.

The lower eyelids can sag, too, which can expose more of the lower part of your eye than normal. While sagging lower eyelids may not affect your eyesight, they can put you at risk for developing eye infections and dry eyes, and they can also affect the way you look.

Treating droopy eyelids

Many patients with mild to moderate drooping can benefit from nonsurgical correction using the state-of-the-art Plexr® system. Plexr uses plasma technology to create a series of very tiny, controlled injuries in the skin of your eyelids. These injuries then trigger natural healing responses, including a ramped-up production of collagen, which is one of your skin’s building blocks. 

Collagen “links together” to form strong networks, which helps give skin resilience and firmness. Enhanced collagen production can strengthen and elevate your eyelids to reduce sagging and drooping.

In more severe cases, Dr. Belalcazar may recommend eyelid surgery — also called blepharoplasty — to remove excess eyelid skin and fat. With surgery, Dr. Belalcazar makes very tiny incisions — typically in the folds of your eyelids or on the insides of your lower eyelids — to make scars essentially invisible.

Before any type of eyelid procedure, Dr. Belalcazar numbs your eyelids, so you can stay comfortable. Afterward, your eyes may be red or swollen, but these issues should resolve as healing gets underway. You’ll receive complete instructions for caring for the treated areas while they heal.

You don’t have to let droopy eyelids affect your vision or eye health. To learn more about procedures to gently correct eyelid drooping, book an appointment online or over the phone with Advanced Eye Center today.