If you wear contact lenses, chances are, one of your biggest motivators for getting lenses was the promise of looking younger without your bulky eyeglasses. If that’s the case, you might be pretty bummed about a recent study published in the Aesthetic Surgery Journal finding that contact lens wearers tend to look older over time.
To perform the study, researchers looked through photographs of 96 sets of identical twins who met up with researchers each year from 2008 to 2010. During these meetings, researchers measured each twin’s eyelid droopiness. The researchers concluded that eye droopiness was associated more often with the twin who wore contact lenses. On average, the difference in droopiness between the twin with a history of contact lens wear and the one without was 0.5 millimeters.
Of course, throughout the study, researchers considered other environmental factors, including body mass index (BMI), smoking, stress levels, sleep habits, alcohol consumption and sun exposure. Interestingly, none of these lifestyle factors appeared to contribute significantly to eye droopiness.
“Since the identical twins are genetically destined to have similar facial and eyelid features, if there is a difference, it is primarily related to the environmental factors,” study author Bahman Guyuron, MD, FACS and facial plastic surgeon told Yahoo Health. “We were able to demonstrate that, of the external factors unrelated to the genes or aging, use of contact was the only factor that linked to the droopy eyelids.”
In case you think a little eye-droopiness is nothing to worry about, well maybe it isn’t. But if you care about looking older than you are, this research might be concerning.
“Even a minimal droopiness of the eyelids denotes lack of vigor, tiredness, and getting old — often prematurely on the contact lens users,” said Guyuron.
If you’re a contact lens wearer, this is just one more reason to consider LASIK eye surgery. If you’re already forgone contacts and still suffer from droopy eyelids, give us a call; our cutting-edge eyelid surgery procedures can make you look younger with minimal discomfort and recovery.
