A Facial Plastic Surgeon's take on What You Should Never Do to Curb Dark Circles

Dark circles come in different shades of blue, purple, brown or black, depending on your natural skin color, and typically aren’t a cause for concern or medical evaluation. But no one likes to head out with big, dark bags encircling their eyes, and in this day and age, there are many ways to lighten their appearance.

However, it’s always best to educate yourself on what to and what not to do when it comes to medically treating your skin. Especially since the skin under your eyes is 10 times thinner than the rest of your face, and therefore, more prone to side effects.

We have with us Dr. Yash Mehta, Facial Plastic Surgeon, ENT Surgeon and the Founder of the Aesthetic and Cosmetic Surgery Clinic(ACSC) in Mumbai, here with his list of what you should never do to curb your dark circles:

Under-Eye Placement of Threads (absorbable or permanent)
Thread lifts claim to tighten the skin under your eyes by inserting medical-grade thread material into your face and then “pulling” your skin up by tightening the thread. However over time, there is a possibility that the threads could get displaced and become visible.

This leads to the dimpling of the skin (orange peel like skin texture) and chronic edema, a type of swelling. These are complications which have to be dealt with surgically to rectify.

Placement of Permanent Fillers (silicone/collagen)
This involves injecting dermal fillers, also known as tear trough fillers, to lift the delicate skin up and away from the blood vessels under your eyes. This process can cause delayed onset of nodules which become visible because of the permanent fillers.

It can also lead to biofilm development where bacterial biofilms form a barrier that protects the bacteria from the immune system and antibiotics. Skin necrosis and loss of vision are also possible side effects.

Calcium Hydroxylapatite (CaHA)
Calcium Hydroxylapatite (CaHA) is an injectable dermal filler used to improve the appearance of the skin. However, there are my complications associated with its usage such as visible lumps and bumps, blisters and cysts, scarring, vascular occlusion, and blindness. It cannot be dissolved by hyaluronidase.

Plasma Pen
Plasma Pen is used to treat wrinkles, and sagging, dull skin by stimulating the production of collagen in the skin. Its possible side effects are second or third degree burns, change in skin color (hypopigmentation or hyperpigmentation), scarring and chance of sustaining chemical injury from the use of local anesthesia during the procedure.

Fat Grafting (micro or macro)
It is the surgical process by which fat is transferred from one area of the body to another and helps to restore youthful appearance by adding volume to the area below the eye and the nasolabial folds. The complicacies involved are skin contour irregularities like lumps and bumps, fat necrosis, grafted fat becomes hard/firm and benign cyst formation.

Carboxy Therapy
Carboxytherapy injections are supposed to trick the area around the eye into thinking it needs more oxygen, which dilates blood vessels and stimulates increased blood flow in the area. However, there isn’t any evidence to back up the procedure. It’s likely not even targeting the real root of the skin blemishes. Also, it was published in Skin Research and Technology (2015) that it was found that there was no difference in blood flow to the eye area between people with dark circles and people without.Bruising at the injection site is common and the gas will make the eyes swollen briefly until all the gas is absorbed. Repeated episodes of skin stretching around the eyes could cause looseness and wrinkles.

This article was authored by Dr. Yash Mehta, Facial Plastic Surgeon, ENT Surgeon and Founder of Aesthetic and Cosmetic Surgery Clinic (ACSC)