Hooded eyelids (dermatochalasis)

Hoo­ded eyelids, medi­cal­ly known as der­ma­to­chalas­is, are an excess of skin on the upper eyelid that hangs over the lid crease. This makes the eyes look smal­ler, hea­vy and tired.

Cau­ses

The main cau­se is the natu­ral loss of skin ela­s­ti­ci­ty with age. Gene­tics, sun dama­ge and a des­cen­ding eye­brow also con­tri­bu­te. Some­ti­mes fat­ty tis­sue bul­ges for­ward as well.

Sym­ptoms

The lid crease is part­ly or com­ple­te­ly hid­den beneath the over­han­ging skin. Many peo­p­le noti­ce that eyes­ha­dow smud­ges. In pro­no­un­ced cases the outer field of visi­on is rest­ric­ted, and the fore­head mus­cles are ten­sed uncon­scious­ly to lift the lids, which can con­tri­bu­te to fore­head lines or headaches.

Tre­at­ment

The effec­ti­ve tre­at­ment is an upper eyelid lift, which remo­ves the excess skin. If the main cau­se is a low eye­brow, a brow lift may be con­side­red. Botu­li­num toxin can lift the brow slight­ly in mild cases but does not replace surgery.

Matching tre­at­ment at Swiss Der­ma Cli­nic: Eyelid lift (ble­phar­oplasty)