Therapy
For the treatment of swollen eyelids, there is unfortunately no general procedure that can be given due to the many possibilities of causes. Therefore, the attending physician must first find out how and why the swelling of the eyelid occurred in order to be able to consider the next steps of treatment. As is the case everywhere in medicine, the anamnesis interview is the most important thing here.
This alone is often enough to find the cause of the swelling. In general, there are various treatment options available to the doctor, which are applied depending on the cause. In some cases, cooling can already provide relief, in others, anti-inflammatory eye drops or antibiotics are necessary.
In other cases, an operative intervention may be able to provide relief. However, this can only be decided after a professional diagnosis.Fortunately, in most cases it is just the usual swollen eyes in the early morning, so measures are sufficient to alleviate or avoid this. A sufficient fluid intake ensures that the flow of lymphatic fluid is stimulated and brought into momentum, and thus the congestion in the eyelids disappears more quickly.
Light cooling, for example with a damp cloth or a spoon placed in the refrigerator overnight, also helps to reduce the swelling. There are also special eye masks that have the same function. The cosmetics industry also offers countless skin care products that can have a draining, decongesting, cooling or overall rejuvenating effect.
Often, however, a standard moisturizer is sufficient, since the decongestant effect is primarily based on the cooling of the eyelids caused by evaporation. The same effect can also be achieved with cucumber slices. To additionally accelerate the draining off of the excess lymphatic fluid, you can massage it with your fingers and slightly circular movements and thus try to gently remove the swelling.
Duration of swollen eyelids
How long the eyelids will remain swollen in such an unpleasant way depends again completely on what the cause of the swelling is. If, as in most cases, it is the usual thick eyelids in the early morning and shortly after getting up, it usually does not take long before the circulation gets going and the excess lymph fluid flows out of the eyelids again, with gravity doing the rest. The older you get, the weaker the connective tissue around the eyes becomes and not only tends to swell faster, but usually the swelling lasts longer. But after an hour at the latest, the swelling usually disappears completely and without any consequences. If the eyelids are additionally lightly massaged and cooled, the swelling often disappears after a few minutes.
