What Causes Festoons Below the Eyes?
No doubt you’re familiar with dark circles or bags beneath your eyes. Even young people can get them after a few nights without sleep. But some people developed bulges that go beyond puffiness and look like swelling on your upper cheeks. If you have those, you may be looking at structural damage known as festoons, or malar mounds. Though festoons under the eyes are generally harmless, they have a significant impact on your appearance. They age you and making you look exhausted. Festoons below the eyes rank among the most upsetting signs of aging. They’re also one of the most difficult challenges for cosmetic surgeons.
Why Do Festoons Form Below the Eyes?
Festoon eye bags are caused by a confluence of things. While they’re certainly part of aging, genetics plays a big part in their development: If your grandmother or grandfather had them, there’s a good chance you’ll get them too. If you smoked or spent a lot of time in the sun without slathering on the sunscreen, you increased your risk.
Festoons under the eyes are a structural problem involving the muscle that helps close the eyelid (the orbicularis muscle) loosening. When this occurs, the skin, fat, and muscle bunch together and fill with fluid. As you age, untreated festoons will eventually start looking like water-filled balloons resting on the top of the cheek, especially if you retain fluid. This is partially due to thinning of your skin. Festoons and eye bags, which are closer to the lower eyelid, can sometimes merge into what looks like a single mass below the eye. Despite the way they look, malar mounds and eyebags are different physical structures.
Treating Festoons Under the Eyes
As upsetting as festoons under your eye can be, we can fix them. The challenges faced by surgeons in the past have been overcome with the use of revolutionary lasers that deliver energy beneath the skin. This technology addresses the structural weakness that created the mass and stimulates the production of collagen to rebuild the area where the fluid collected. Dr. Scheiner has years of experience in providing this transformative procedure, and patients from all around the world have been ecstatic to see them erased from their faces. Patients who also have lower-lid eye bags can have lower-lid blepharoplasty performed at the same time. Making things even better, Dr. Scheiner’s procedures now include his proprietary RESET festoon treatment that restores the skin under the eyes to its condition from decades earlier.
Did you read 10 Things You Need to Know About Festoons?
Patient After RESET for Festoon Surgery:
For information on whether the drooping or puffiness under your eyes is caused by festoons, contact our office today to set up an in-person or online consultation.