Odd colored circles under eyes...

[MelancholySpork]

I am 18 years old and have been suffering from this most of my life. It seems that nobody has any solutions for my particular problem, although thousands of remedies for dark-under-eye circles exist. Beneath my eyes, there are two ring-like depressions that I have read to be a deformity that can only be removed by laser surgery. Besides that, the space under my right eye is a very visible bluish-white... predominantly white with a blue tinge. My left eye, however, is a noticeably dark brown. I don't know what to do about this. They have never gone away or improved over the many years I've had them. I have tried several creams but none of them have worked. What is this, and does any solution exist?

[Dr J Singh]

Hello,
The spots in the picture look like vitiligo patches. It is a pigmentation disorder in which melanocytes (the cells that make pigment) in the skin are destroyed. As a result, white patches appear on the skin in different parts of the body.
Diagnosis can be confirmed by external examination, blood tests to check skin cell count  for melanocytes and biopsy of the skin patches.

In my opinion consultation of a dermatologist will be the best.

I hope that helps.Take care and pls do keep me posted on how you are doing and if you have any additional queries.Kind regards.

[MelancholySpork]

Hi,

Thanks for your quick response. I looked up some images of the skin diseases you mentioned, and I don't think they are quite it. I will post a picture of the problem for you:

http://www.majhost.com/gallery/Algernon/Avs/eyes.jpg

The camera flash reduced the tones a little bit. The white spot is blue-ish and the dark spot is darker. I have heard of both of these problems but not in the same person. They seem to be associated with blood vessels.

It might be worth noting that I didn't have them at all until I was about 11.

Thanks for responding!

[Bhupinder Kaur, MD]

Hello,
The symptoms that you are having sound like a birth mark like a port wine stain or nevus de ota.It is no use trying any creams on these kind of birth marks and it shows good to excellent response using Ruby, Alexandrite or ND YAG lasers. Multiple treatments are required to eliminate the collections of pigment cells seen deep in the dermis.Hence I agree with your dermatologist that laser treatment is required for complete clearance.

Hope it helps.Take care and pls do keep me posted on how you are doing or if you have any additional queries.Warm regards.