As you age, the thin skin on your upper eyelids is one of the first places you see fine lines, wrinkles, and sags. Your lids also droop, making you look perpetually tired or uncaring about what’s going on around you. The droop can also interfere with your peripheral vision.
Traditionally, the go-to solution is blepharoplasty, a surgical procedure that removes excess skin, fat, and muscle and lifts the lids so you appear awake and alert and can see well. However, surgery involves some risk and, of course, downtime.
Now, there’s a new treatment — Upneeq®. It’s an ophthalmic solution used to temporarily lift low-lying upper lids. At Plateroti Dermatology, our expert providers offer Upneeq to our patients in and around Templeton, California, who either aren’t ready to embrace a surgical option or are looking for a noninvasive treatment for their droopy lids.
Droopy eyelids can be either congenital, meaning you’re born with the condition, or acquired, meaning they develop over time.
Acquired droopy lids can not only be caused by aging, but they may also be caused by an underlying medical condition, including stroke, cerebral aneurysm, Horner syndrome, myasthenia gravis (muscle weakness), orbital infection, and orbital masses. Your ophthalmologist or your primary care provider can run tests to determine if you have any of these.
Upneeq® is the first and only FDA-approved prescription eye drop for adults with low-lying eyelids. It provides a nonsurgical eyelid lift, quickly lifting the lids for more awake-looking eyes.
Upneeq works by stimulating an involuntary muscle in the eyelid. The muscle contracts, lifting the upper eyelid and reducing the drooping.
The dose is one drop per eye, once daily. This dose has been clinically proven to lift the eyelids in as fast as five minutes, with an effect that can last up to eight hours.
In clinical studies, the average lift to the upper eyelid was 1 mm. While this may seem small and won’t give you the dramatic results possible with surgery, it’s enough to be cosmetically or medically helpful to many people.
Congenitally droopy eyelids can’t be treated with Upneeq. Instead, they may require corrective surgery. Acquired eyelid sagging can be treated with Upneeq.
The drops come in single-use vials, and it’s important not to touch the tip of the dropper with your hand or eye and not to try to use the vial more than once. Each vial contains enough drops for each eye once a day.
If you’re dealing with mild, moderate, or severe upper eyelid sagging, and you’re not taking any medications that could interfere with Upneeq, then you may be a good candidate for the drops.
You should know that Upneeq can affect your blood pressure and amine metabolism and can interfere with certain prescription medications, including beta-blockers, anti-hypertensive (blood pressure lowering) medications, cardiac glycosides, and monoamine oxidase inhibitors.
Talk to us about all the medications and supplements you take so we can make an informed decision about treatment.
Want to lift your lids but don’t want to undergo surgery? Plateroti Dermatology can help. Give us a call at 805-434 2821 to schedule a consultation with us today.
