Why do eyelids droop with age?
This is another one of the “collateral damages” of the passage of time. The solution depends on the specific reason that caused the appearance of this unpleasant pathology
With age, you know, things fall apart for one reason or another. It’s a shame, but it’s true. And one of those things that come – the list is long, but it is better to ignore it this time – are the eyelids, which close our eyes and make our eyes smaller … unless we use aesthetic means.
“The drooping of the eyelids happens physiologically over the years. Therefore, from the age of practice all people will have, to a greater or lesser degree, drooping eyelids superiors, explains Eva Vico, a doctor from the ophthalmology service of the Sanitas La Moraleja University Hospital.
According to Vico, “they fall for various reasons: for a excess skin due to age or various abnormalities affecting levator palpebrae muscle“. This second supposition may arise “both because it is uninsert from your insertion area spontaneously like because I go loss of strengthboth reasons have to do with the passage of time.” Besides, he adds, “there are others neurological or myopathic diseases which are less common but can also affect this muscle causing a ptosis“.
When drooping eyelids are caused by a excess skin on the upper eyelids “is called dermatoachalasiaand is the most common cause of this pathology. This is usually associated with loss of tone and sagging of facial tissuessomething that is also a natural consequence of aging.”
they exist varying degrees of dermatoachalasia and in advanced cases ” the skin of the eyelids rests on the eyelashes, causing the patient to notice heaviness in the eyes, difficulty in the upper visual field, and squinting he looks sad and tired. In most cases, the eyelid is not really lowered, so the levator muscle is not affected.”
This is a pathology that “affects both men and women and although their frequency increases with age, they can occur cases in young people. In this sense, this doctor emphasizes that “there is important genetic loadso its frequency increases in those with family burdens.”
To solve this pathology, there is no other option but to go through the operating room. “In the case of dermatoachalasiais corrected by a blepharoplasty on the upper eyelids. For him, excess skin is removed through an incision at the level of the fold of the upper eyelid with the intention of hiding and aesthetically making the scar invisible. This way you will get rejuvenates the appearance and eliminates symptoms caused by this excess skin.
If the problem is ptosis, where there is actually drooping of the upper eyelid caused by a levator muscle malfunction“the surgical intervention to resolve it may vary depending on the findings found in the examination performed by a specialist”.
Thus, says this specialist, “when the levator muscle has a good function and during the ophthalmological examination the phenylephrine test (used to assess muscle functionality) is positive, you can do a conjunctival mulerectomy. Through this technique, we approach the eyelid from the inside ande removes part of the conjunctiva and Muller’s muscle (also responsible for contributing to the palpebral opening)”.
On the other hand, Dr. Vico explains that “if the levator muscle has good function, but phenylephrine test was negative During examination, the intervention is performed on the levator palpebrae muscle through a skin incision at the level of the palpebral fold. It may be necessary reposition the muscle in cases where it is spontaneously displaced. Or it may need to be reinforced by shortening its placement.”
If, on the contrary, the levator muscle has poor function“the only way to correct it is with frontal muscle replacement techniques. Thus, the way the patient opens the eyelid is contraction of the frontal muscle, located in the forehead. To achieve this, they spend several years in surgery internal reinsranging from the upper eyelid to the forehead area so, raising the eyebrowthe patient achieves eyelid opening’.
In short, according to Vico, “there are different ways to correct droopy eyelids depending on what is causing it. And although in most cases this is simply related to age, there may be significant underlying diseases of muscular and neurological origin which we must rule out by a strict ophthalmological examination by a specialist in oculoplastics”.
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