Give droopy eyes a perk

Besides adding years to your face, droopy eyelids can cause eyestrain, discomfort while wearing contact lenses, and, in severe cases, impaired vision.

Besides adding years to your face, droopy eyelids can cause eyestrain, discomfort while wearing contact lenses, and, in severe cases, impaired vision. The weight of the droopy eyelid skin tires the eye muscles, causing eyestrain and fatigue. Since the condition often affects one eye, the inability to fully open it can also make one eye look smaller than the other.

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In some cases, droopy eyelids create pressure on the rims of contact lens, with the excess skin around the eyes pushing the lens off its natural resting place. Depending on the amount of interference, it can cause irritation to the cornea. This condition —where the eyelids appear droopy — is called ptosis and occurs when the muscles that raise the eyelid are not strong enough to do so properly. It can affect one eye or both eyes and may occur with age.

Ptosis can also be caused by injury to the muscle that raises the eyelid or damage to the nerve that controls this muscle. Such damage could be triggered by an underlying disease, such as diabetes, a brain tumour or neurological disorders, such as myasthenia gravis. Ptosis caused by a disease improves if the disease is managed or treated. In Most cases require some sort of surgery, with the average cost of the procedure being around Rs 20,000.

Dr Mahipal S. Sachdev is the chairman and medical director of the Centre for Sight Group of Eye Hospitals.