‘Twinkling eyes…’ These expressive twins convey such emotion! They can light up your face or make a perfectly lit up face appear tired and drab. Dark circles can make you look surprisingly older than you actually are. The causes and exacerbating factors are many. Some of the reversible and lifestyle related factors are lack of sleep, stress, anxiety and late nights. In fact, low haemoglobin and thyroid disorders can also give you dark circles. This article has been written by Dr Niketa Sonavane who specializes in Dark Circles Treatment.

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Dr. Niketa Sonavane

Dermatologist, Skin Specialist and Hair Specialist practicing in Mumbai with over 17 years experience and over 10,000 happy patients.

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Causes of dark circles

Under eye darkness can occur due to low grade hypersensitivity to eye make up. In some cases it may be a sign of Atopy and Allergic Rhinitis or Sinusitis. While in others it may be a continuation of the physiologic Pigmentary Demarcation Lines. A lot of factors responsible for dark circles may not be correctable. Hereditary factors, chronic ill health, medications, vision disturbances, strenuous visual work such as computers and reading may not be effectively controlled. Then too we give a lot of importance to identification and correction of the causative factors.

Medical research says that dark circles are essentially a self inflicted chronic trauma. “How so?”, you may ask. The eyelid skin is very thin. In fact, it is the thinnest skin of our body. It also has a very rich blood supply via millions of blood capillaries. So, when you are constantly straining your eyes blood leaks from these micro-capillaries into the eyelid skin. This acts similar to a bruise and leaves a blue-black stain on the skin.

Imagine that happening on a slow, micro level inside the eyelids each day, every day! Another mechanism that may be causative is the actual thickening of eyelid skin and increased melanin. Any individual may be suffering from one or both of these.

Dark circles Treatment

Treatment of under eye dark circles focuses on:

Strengthening the eyelid skin via new collagen formation
Strengthening the capillary walls to prevent leaks
Clearing of the blood pigment (hemosiderin) trapped in the eyelid skin
Eliminating excess dead cells and melanin

Mesotherapy for Dark Circles

In my practice, I love the challenge that under eye problems pose. The treatment usually takes around two months after we identify the cause and address it. I personally vouch by the ‘Mesotherapy Eye Brightening’ treatment protocol that I have developed and perfected over the past 10 years. We do the sessions once in 7 to 10 days. Each session takes about 20 minutes in the clinic. You will see the improvement with each session and the problem will be visibly reduced or solved in about 8-10 weeks. We often plan the mesotherapy treatment in combination with chemical peels, medicated creams and treatment of the underlying cause of your under eye problem.

Diet and Lifestyle

My advice to all would be to follow a healthy lifestyle, have healthy food containing fresh fruits and salads, plenty of water, Green tea and most importantly get that 8 hour ‘Beauty sleep’. This way you can prevent dark circles that are in the early red-purple phase. Also try placing cool cucumber slices or cool tea bags on the eyes for 10 minutes each day to soothe tired eyes.

Myths and Facts

Many people have the impression that we cannot treat dark circles. I strongly disagree. But I do agree that dark circles can be very stubborn due to many causal factors. Creams and home remedies can work on very early stages. But usually they are not of much help. Synake B Serum and Obagi Professional Serum are good options to try. However these international pharmaceutical products are available only with select Dermatologists including myself.

What really works?

If I were to suggest a dark circle treatment that definitely works, it would be a combination of Chemical peels and Mesotherapy. It is the fastest and most effective way of addressing this stubborn under eye problem.