The eyes truly serve as a window that helps you understand your overall health, and one of the clearest ways they serve this purpose is by providing signs of potential build up of cholesterol in your veins and arteries. Cholesterol deposits can occur inside of your eye, but you can often see them showing up around your eyelids in your skin.
When this happens, you might hear your eye doctor in Brooklyn, NY refer to your condition as xanthelasma. While seeing these deposits around your eyes might be upsetting, you’ll typically have several options for treatment to remove them and prevent new ones from occurring in the future.
Identify Cholesterol Deposits Early
Regular eye exams help to identify conditions that impact your vision early on. Exterior cholesterol deposits won’t typically harm your vision, unless they grow large enough to obscure your view. However, cholesterol build up in the veins that surround your retina could potentially lead to vision changes, especially if you develop age-related macular degeneration.
Explore Removal Options for Existing Deposits
Most cholesterol deposits are easily removed during a visit to your ophthalmology clinic on an outpatient basis. Since half of all people with xanthelasma have high cholesterol, your eye doctor might recommend doing blood testing to check for underlying conditions along with treatment for the existing lesions.
The type of removal method your doctor chooses depends upon factors such as the size and amount of the deposits, and these are the most common treatments they’ll recommend.
Surgical Excision
Using a small blade that is designed for use around the eye, your ophthalmologist will simply surgically remove the deposit. Similar to other types of excisions, this will leave a small wound that takes a few weeks to heal.
Laser Removal
Laser ablation is another option that has a faster recovery rate. With laser removal, you can expect a high rate of success with removing the deposit.
Cryotherapy
This removal method uses extremely cold temperatures to essentially freeze the deposit and surrounding cells to cause it to stop growing. Sometimes, cryotherapy requires repeated treatments. Similar to excisions and laser removal, cryotherapy may also leave a small scar that causes pigment changes to the affected skin.
Work On Controlling Underlying Health Conditions
Developing cholesterol deposits around your eyes is a sign that you may also have fats accumulating in your blood steam that affect the vessels that exist within your eyes. This is why getting any underlying conditions under control can help you to reduce the effects of cholesterol on your bloodstream.
Recent research shows that taking medication to control high cholesterol or diabetes can help to prevent degenerative eye conditions. You can also take additional measures to improve your health. Reducing your use of alcohol, implementing an exercise routine and eating healthier can all prevent exterior cholesterol deposits from developing while also safeguarding your vision.
Each of the primary treatment methods that your eye doctor uses to address cholesterol deposits in the eye area works best when the lesions are identified early. Removing smaller lesions naturally requires less recovery time, and the risks of pigment changes in your skin are lessened with early removal.
Reach out to your ophthalmologist about any new spots that develop around your eye, and remember to mention if you have a diagnosis of high cholesterol during your next appointment so that they can check carefully for deposits during your exam. Together, you can work out a plan to prevent and treat deposits to ensure that your vision remains clear as you age.