Do you have skin tags on your eyelids? Is that making you self-conscious? Are you concerned that the presence of these skin tags may be suggesting something serious? Read the article to know more
A skin tag on eyelid can be very annoying, making a person conscious about his or her appearance, as it is right there on your face, visible to everyone or the site where it is located may be irritating such that if it is in proximity to the conjunctiva of the eye, it may cause disturbance in the vision or irritancy in the eye.
This skin tag despite being benign in most of the cases, can lower a person’s confidence and affect them psychologically if not physically.
Before discussing appropriate methods to get rid of these annoying tags on the face, lets understand what skin tags actually are and what causes them to pop up on our body.
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What is a skin tag?
Skin tag or acrochordon, as the doctors like to call it, is a benign proliferation of epithelial squamous cells that make up the uppermost layer of the skin. These skin tags appear as soft, skin colored, smooth, round lesions that may or may not have a peduncle or stalk. The size of skin tags may vary from 2 to 5mm in diameters.
A skin tag is composed of blood vessel, collagen and skin covering.
Skin tags are extremely common in general population and are mostly found in the skin folds such as armpits, groin, skin folds below the breasts, neck and eyelids. Studies show that around 45 percent of adults have skin tags on their body.
Male to female distribution of skin tags is equal i.e., it affects both the sexes equally around the globe.
Eyelid despite being very small and comprising very little area in our body, plays important role in protecting the eyeball and helping it to function properly. The eyelid skin contains no subcutaneous fat and is the thinnest skin in the body.
All these characters along with the position of eyelid make it prone to benign and even malignant tumors and outgrowths. A skin tag also falls in the category of a benign skin tumor involving body creases such as axilla, neck, groin and also eyelids.
Skin tags do not cause any problem but may be associated with pain, irritation and even infection leaving a scar, if picked up unprofessionally.
What causes a skin tag?
What causes these epithelial cells to grow abnormally is not known yet but it is believed that continuous irritation or friction of the skin in the skin creases may act as a trigger for the proliferation and abnormal growth of the skin cells.
This belief seems quite acceptable when you see that skin tags are much more common in people who are obese and thus, have more skin folds.
As the prevalence of skin tags is high in pregnant women, it is also hypothesized that hormonal imbalance play an important role in formation of skin tags.
In another study a high percentage of human papilloma virus or HPV-6 and HPV-11 DNA were found in biopsies taken from skin tags, suggesting a viral involvement in the formation of skin tags. The role of human papilloma virus or any other virus, in causing skin tags however is not confirmed till date.
Some believe that skin tags are only yet another phenomenon associated with aging as it is seen that the occurrence of skin tags increase after 50’s.
All these hypotheses remain unconfirmed in the scientific community and so does the etiology or cause of the skin tags still remains unknown and obscure.
Can a skin tag be harmful?
Although, skin tags are mere benign tumors that do not cause any serious harm to a person’s physical health but their visible presence such as on eyelid can be annoying cosmetically and may even hamper self-confidence.
At the same time too many skin tags are associated with a number of health related conditions that may need medical intervention and management.
A strong association between insulin resistance and the presence of skin tags was observed in a study where around 40.6 percent of the research subjects with skin tags were found to have diabetes mellitus as well.
There is also a link seen between skin tags and obesity, dyslipidemia, high blood pressure, and elevated C reactive protein which suggests that skin tags may act as markers of possible cardiovascular disease.
Skin tags are also present in a rare genetic disease known as Birt-Hogg-Dube (BHD) syndrome.
Birt-Hogg-Dube or BHD syndrome is a rare autosomal dominant congenital disease of skin characterized by multiple skin tumors including acrochordons or simply skin tags.
The importance of this syndrome lies in the fact that it makes the affected person susceptible to renal cancer and spontaneous pneumothorax thus requiring close monitoring if diagnosed with this condition.
Thus, as mentioned skin tags may act as markers of potent health conditions, requiring medical intervention.
It may not be bad to know that there have been some documented reports of using skin tags as grafts for ear and nasal reconstruction surgeries which means that a skin tag may not be as useless as you may consider it for it can increase the chances of success of reconstruction surgery if ever needed.
How do I get rid of the skin tag on my eyelid?
Not everyone or rather anyone would want to reserve a skin tag for a “may be possible” future reconstruction surgery, especially when this annoying piece of flesh is hanging on someone’s eyelid.
Internet might be generous enough to provide with a number of home remedies from applying apple cider vinegar to tying up the base of the skin tag with a dental floss, in order to get rid of a skin tag but it is wise enough to pay a visit to a dermatologist before you may damage your eyes while excising a skin tag on a sensitive area like eyelid.
You would also want to get your eyelid skin tag checked by a professional physician for any possible sign of malignancy, which is rare but not impossible.
Skin tags on eyelids usually are considered medically insignificant and do not require treatment and are hence removed because of cosmetic concerns.
Methods adopted to successfully remove these tags include removal with a serrated scissor or excision, cryotherapy and electro-surgery.
During excision in order to reduce the amount of bleeding, local anesthesia is applied over the skin tag before excising it. The whole procedure must be done in clean and sterile conditions to avoid any infection. Small skin tags can be removed by tying up the base of the skin tag with dental floss, cutting off its blood supply unless it falls on its own.
Other effective methods other than surgical excision that can be utilized to remove a skin tag include cryotherapy and electrocautery. Cryotherapy utilizes liquid nitrogen to freeze the skin tag such that in a week or two it falls off on its own.
In electrocautery, your physician will use electric current to burn the base of the skin tag to remove it while at the same time controlling it from bleeding too much.
As mentioned before, a large number of skin tags on eyelids or anywhere else may suggest a possible underlying metabolic syndrome (obesity, hypocholesteremia, diabetes etc.), some patients may thus need evaluation for possibility of such a condition.
Can skin tags be prevented?
If answered simply without any twisting and turning, NO.
There is no evidence based study that would suggest preventive measures against getting skin tags on eyelids but since there has been a strong association between metabolic syndromes and presence of skin tags, what one can do is to prevent or control the incidence of these metabolic syndromes, that may help reduce the possible incidence of skin tags.
Skin tags are quiet common in obese and overweight people and thus reducing weight can actually help.
Uncontrolled diabetes and glucose intolerance is also a common comorbidity in people who have skin tags.
Regular exercises, healthy diets and routine checkups may help to keep diabetes and also skin tags in check. Similarly, along with these one should avoid fatty and unhealthy food as there is also a strong relation between dyslipidemia and presence of skin tags.
So skin tags may not actually be as worth less in our lives as we think them to be, especially when their presence makes us rethink about our daily routine and the way we are living our life.
If you observe too many skin tags growing on your body, this might be your body’s way of communicating that you need to change your habits and start to think seriously about living a healthy life; that you need to act faster than mere thinking, to avoid any long term complication such as diabetes.
Skin tags therefore may act as markers for screening patients for diabetes, hypertension, high cholesterol, high triglycerides and other cardiovascular problems, providing an early warning and an opportunity to control these problems beforehand.