Do I Need a Prescription for the Eye Drops That Help with Droopy Eyelids After Botox?

Eyelid droop may be corrected with a prescription eye drop (Iopidine 0.5%) that you can get from a physician. This can help alleviate the droop within a few weeks to a month. However, before obtaining your prescription, have your injector examine you to make sure that Iopidine is suitable. 

Your question has 2 answers.I would recommend returning to your physician injector for a close exam to discuss the following possible answers:The answer is YES if you have a droopy eye-LID.  Typically, this happens when some of the Botox inadvertently diffuses onto the Levator Palpebrae, 1 of the 2 eyelid muscles that normally elevates the eyelid.  The eye-drops (commonly Apraclonidine 0.5) can be prescribed to stimulate the 2nd muscle (Mueller's muscle) to elevate the eyelid.  Make sure your physician has discussed all the potential side effects of the drops, including adrenaline-like symptoms such as "racing" your heart, making you feel anxious, as well as being irritating to your eye and at times, painful. If that occurs you may need to switch to something other than Apraclonidine and also try some lubricating eye drops for dryness.The answer is NO if you have a droopy eye-BROW that is causing some sagging of the skin above the upper eyelid that may appear to be a droopy eyelid.  In this scenario, the droopy brow is due to Botox injected into forehead muscles that typically raise the brow.  In eliminating some of the wrinkles in the forehead, the Botox in this case would have caused the brow to drop, and then some of the eyelid skin to gather over the upper eyelid, that can at times appear like a droopy eyelid.  Eye-drops in this case would not help.If you do indeed have an eyelid droop, the good news is that this is typically 100% reversible since the effect of the Botox is not permanent. Botox can last up to 4-5 months but typically the eyelid droop does not last as long (1-2 months) because a lower dose of the toxin has reached only part of the eyelid-raising (Levator) muscle.Good luck.

If you have droopy eyelids from a relaxation of the levator muscle of the upper eyelid from diffusion of Botox in the forehead right above the eyebrow in vertical line with the pupil, then Iopidine may help lift the eyelid by 1 or 2 mm. only. The droop will be gone on its own if 12 to 16 weeks; it's not permanent.  If however, in some people, the drop of the eyelid is related to the eyebrow lowering.  These people can already have a saggy eyebrow and the forehead is used on a day-to-day basis to maintain contraction so as to elevate the eyebrow.  If Botox is used to relax the forehead in these patients, then it can no longer help support the sagging eyebrow and that along with the upper eyelid can drop. Iopidine will not help in this condition.