Tear Trough Procedure

What Are Tear Troughs?

Also known as the hollowness under the eyes, the tear troughs are typically caused by changes in the aging face. First, our skin loses elasticity over time. Second, under the skin are facial fat pads, which help cushion our skin and add volume to our face; these fat pads start to shrink and sag over time, causing the area under the eye to hollow out. By expertly placing filler into this hollow area, we can help restore the facial fat pads and decrease the hollowness, which ultimately corrects the tear troughs.

Because the area under the eyes is so delicate with many blood vessels, swelling and bruising is very common when using a needle to inject filler and there can be a risk of downtime for the next week or so. However, at Vive, we use a cannula to strategically place filler with minimal bruising and swelling. What is a cannula? Well, it looks like a needle but instead of having a sharp pointed tip it has a rounded blunt tip. This allows it to pass under the skin without causing injury to the blood vessels and soft tissue, virtually eliminating bruising.

Typically, this treatment will last over twelve months and some patients have been able to see lasting results up to two years later.  We use different hyaluronic acid fillers depending on the patient’s skin, degree of hollowness, and facial features to achieve a natural look.

Sometimes, younger patients present with concerns of hollowness that they have always had, even as an adolescent. In this case, it is not a result of loss of skin elasticity or decrease in facial fat, it is just an inherited facial anatomic feature.   These patients typically do wonderfully with correction of the tear troughs because they still have good skin elasticity.

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