# little bumps under the eye **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 27, 2005, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-bumps-under-the-eye/292157 "2005-02-27T17:48:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![drhess](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/94ad74/32.png) [@drhess](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drhess)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2005, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-bumps-under-the-eye/292157/1 "2005-02-27T17:48:36Z")
What are the little bumps under the eye that develop, along with all the other stuff!, when you age? I assume it’s a kind of fat deposit? Does it come with increased fat percentage or from aging and/or sun damage? ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2005, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-bumps-under-the-eye/292157/2 "2005-02-27T17:54:30Z")
> [@drhess](#): > > What are the little bumps under the eye that develop, along with all the other stuff!, when you age? I assume it’s a kind of fat deposit? Does it come with increased fat percentage or from aging and/or sun damage? When last I had an eye exam, the optometrist (not M.D.) who gave it to me said that such deposits (which I have) are reservoirs of cholesterol, which I might want to have looked at. How true that is, I have no idea. I offer it as information obtained from a quasi-professsional until a competent health care practitioner posts here to discuss it in more depth. ---
**Author:** ![KarlGauss](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/karlgauss/32/3713_2.png) [@KarlGauss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KarlGauss)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2005, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-bumps-under-the-eye/292157/3 "2005-02-27T18:03:17Z")
[Xanthelasma](http://www.merck.com/mrkshared/mmanual/plates/15pla3.jsp) are usually flattish, waxy deposits (I wouldn’t call them tiny). About 50% of people with xanthelasma have high levels of cholesterol or related abnormalities of fat metabolism. ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2005, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-bumps-under-the-eye/292157/4 "2005-02-27T18:08:52Z")
**KG** speaks truth, as always. But another diagnostic possibility would be skin tags. They can be smaller than a millimeter, or as large as a pea. Here’s a page of common skin conditions around the eyes: [http://www.nsc.gov.sg/cgi-bin/WB\_ContentGen.pl?id=152&gid=33](http://www.nsc.gov.sg/cgi-bin/WB_ContentGen.pl?id=152&gid=33) ---
**Author:** ![kniz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/c37758/32.png) [@kniz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kniz)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2005, 12:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-bumps-under-the-eye/292157/5 "2005-02-28T00:41:15Z")
> [@Polycarp](#): > > When last I had an eye exam, the optometrist (not M.D.) who gave it to me said that such deposits (which I have) are reservoirs of cholesterol, which I might want to have looked at. How true that is, I have no idea. I offer it as information obtained from a quasi-professsional until a competent health care practitioner posts here to discuss it in more depth. They are deposits caused by sholesterol. I had mine removed by a plastic surgeon twenty some years ago and they never came back. ---
**Author:** ![KarlGauss](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/karlgauss/32/3713_2.png) [@KarlGauss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KarlGauss)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2005, 1:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-bumps-under-the-eye/292157/6 "2005-02-28T01:55:45Z")
Ah, took me a while, but I found a [reference](http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=pubmed&dopt=Abstract&list_uids=8288783) for my “50%” figure above. ---
**Author:** ![drhess](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/94ad74/32.png) [@drhess](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drhess)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2005, 4:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-bumps-under-the-eye/292157/7 "2005-03-02T04:02:04Z")
I think based on the ugly pics on those pages that Q posted (going back to page I however and not page II), that it might be Syringoma. Which sounds smaller and more like what I have.