The tear trough — the delicate groove that sits between the lower eyelid and the upper cheek — naturally experiences a loss in volume (due to genetics, aging, or weight loss), which produces hollowing and shadows that look like dark circles under the eyes. Tear Trough Augmentation is an intricate, meticulous, nonsurgical procedure where Dr. Hamilton strategically injects tiny micro-droplets of dermal filler to restore facial volume under the eyes. The customized treatment instantly fills in the hollowness, softens the appearance of the tear troughs, smooths fine lines under the eyelids, and helps camouflage any under-eye bags — creating a brighter, youthful, rejuvenated look. A smooth, seamless transition from the tear troughs to the upper cheeks results — optimally reflecting light to enhance and refresh the appearance of the upper face.
Tear Trough Augmentation is often combined with Cheekbone Contouring (where dermal filler adds definition and volume to the cheekbones) — because treating the two facial areas, which form one unit anatomically, boosts and accentuates the rejuvenating results achieved in the upper third of the face. This natural complement restores volume to the tear troughs and creates defined, sculpted cheekbones, resulting in a high-impact transformation — including an even more youthful, smooth transition that now occurs from the lower eyelids to the entire cheek region, a visibly softer, more balanced facial contour, and a greater ability for the light to now strike the face in a more optimal fashion to look great from all angles. Patients look more awake and revitalized because combining the treatments creates the effect of refreshing the overall face.
Dr. Hamilton also offers the alternate option of performing Tear Trough Augmentation with Fat Transfer and Cheekbone Augmentation with Fat Transfer to add natural-looking volume to the face for a more permanent, refreshed effect which can last for years. (Note that Fat Transfer is also called Fat Grafting.) Here, a minimally-invasive, surgical liposuction procedure is performed that extracts an individual’s own body fat before it is processed and injected into the tear troughs and cheeks — for a softer, brightened under-eye area, well-defined, highly sculpted cheekbones, a more optimal light reflection that boosts its impact on overall facial beauty, and a very smooth transition from the lower eyelids to the cheeks — creating youthful-looking, long-lasting results.
A gold-standard option available is to combine Lower Eyelid Surgery (Lower Blepharoplasty) with Tear Trough Augmentation (using either Dermal Fillers or Facial Fat Grafting) — because lower eyelid surgery produces greater benefits (especially if the tissue in the lower eyelids is lax and/or heavy, under-eye bags exist) and more permanent results. This combination of procedures more remarkably rejuvenates the aesthetic appearance of the lower eyelids and tear troughs, refreshing the appearance of the entire face — which enables the patient to look and feel more radiant.