Obesity not only affects your body shape, but can also cause your eyelashes to "rebel"

You may have heard that obesity can cause high blood pressure and diabetes, but did you know that while your waistline is quietly growing, your eyelashes may also be brewing a "rebellion". As an ophthalmology nurse, I found an interesting phenomenon in the outpatient clinic: many patients with inverted eyelashes are accompanied by obesity, especially children. Today, let's take a look at the secret connection between obesity and inverted eyelashes.

The Butterfly Effect of Fat Accumulation

When you are overweight, facial fat will accumulate around your eyes like a cushion. These "little pillows" will gradually press on the edge of your eyelids, causing the roots of your eyelashes, which were originally curled outward, to be continuously pushed. Over time, the elasticity of your eyelid skin decreases, and like a collapsed tent frame, the direction of eyelash growth begins to shift.

Dangerous close encounters

Each inverted eyelash is like a tiny steel brush. Every time you blink, it will rub the cornea, causing a series of reactions in the eyes: mild inverted eyelashes have no symptoms; more obvious inverted eyelashes can cause redness, pain, foreign body sensation, tears and other symptoms. Just like a brush for washing clothes, brushing the same place for a long time will make the clothes thinner. Persistent inverted eyelashes will rub the cornea and affect vision. In severe cases, secondary infection may occur, and even corneal ulcers and perforations may occur, causing blindness.

What to do if you have inverted eyelashes

What should I do if I have inverted eyelashes? Here are the three ways to deal with inverted eyelashes:

1. Conservative observation

Temporary entropion or abnormal eyelashes are very soft, which is obviously caused by facial obesity or underdeveloped nose. In this case, conservative observation can be chosen, which is generally suitable for infants or young children. In this case, the eyelashes will not cause serious irritation or damage to the cornea.

Parents can pull down their children's eyelids appropriately. The specific method is: parents wash their hands and gently pull down the child's lower eyelid 30-40 times, 2-3 times a day. Some children will improve their entropion and their eyelashes will gradually disappear due to facial growth or weight loss.

2. Remove inverted eyelashes

Several or a small number of inverted eyelashes rub against the cornea, causing foreign body sensation, red and painful eyes, tearing and other irritation symptoms. In this case, the inverted eyelashes can be removed. However, after the inverted eyelashes are removed, they will grow back within half a month to a month.

3. Surgical correction

Stubborn eyelashes with a large number or "collective rebellion", as well as clear entropion with eyelashes. In this case, you can go to the plastic surgery department of the hospital for surgical correction. The doctor will design an effective and relatively hidden surgical incision according to the condition, remove excess skin and fat, reshape the eyelid curvature, and suture will also be done in a cosmetic suture manner. The postoperative skin incision scar will be relatively small, which is equivalent to rebuilding the "growth track" for the eyelashes. Of course, for eyelashes caused by obesity, it is first recommended that you lose weight scientifically and rationally.