As we age, our eyes inevitably take on a baggy look. Now scientists think they know why. Fat in the eye socket expands. The finding could prove useful to the growing number of people not satisfied with the natural look. Eyelids are not just extraneous flaps of skin. They are crucial for protecting the eye from debris and damage. The eye and eyelid are so connected that the pressure of the eyelid on the eyeball may cause one of the most common vision problems, researchers learned in 2006. Not something you want to muck around with. Yet eyelid surgery, top or bottom, is more common than you might think. Nearly 241,000 U.S. residents had it performed last year, putting it in the top four among surgical cosmetic procedures performed. Most of these surgeries don’t remove any fat, however. They just move it around or, in a more invasive move, tighten the muscle that surrounds the eye or tighten the ligament that holds the eyeball in place. No data indicated this was the right approach, the researchers point out in the September 2008 issue of the Journal of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery. ‘A common treatment […]