Hello to y'all,
It is another exciting week and i am happy to have the opportunity to come your way with another discussion or lesson on the eye. As usual i seek to share my knowledge based on everyday practice and what i encounter with my patients so we can all take lessons from it.
I do this because i believe the questions my patients ask me is something that many have in their heads and wished they could ask but perhaps never had the opportunity, by so doing i help out with those unanswered questions and make things easier for us all as patient and care providers.
White Eyes
So somewhere last week i had a patient, it was a young lady in her early twenties who came to the hospital because she has been suffering from allergies which results in conjunctivitis. She explained that she has had the condition for as long as she can remember and use to have frequent reporting to the eye unit as a child.
She further went on to complain about her eye that because of her situation she has been having difficulties keeping her hands away from her eyes and although her primary care provider has insisted she doesn't rub the eye, having given her lots of options she still does it and now as a young adult she feels like she has lost the natural beauty of her eyes. When asked to explain further she said, her eyes are no longer white and she wanted them to become white again.
Truth be told upon examination i could tell that the eye was discolored and the conjunctiva was pigmented and more brown than the eye ought to be but then when i tried to explain to her that it is natural and was bound to happen due to her frequent rubbing she insisted something must be done about it because people in movies have beautiful white eyes which as spotless. So i had to now let her know that even as a child the eye is not spotless white and that should that be the case then one wouldn't be having a safe or healthy eye.
Now the reason why this is not so or cannot be so is because the eye has blood vessels in and around it, these vessels must be filled with blood always, this is to provide nutrition to the eye and its adnexa and the conjunctiva is part of this, and so the presence of these vessels ensures that the eye in itself is not spotless white, it may be clear, bright and beauty if you have taken good care of your eye but it won't be as you see in movies.
There are drugs which could be used to temporarily make the eye extremely white however this is not anything that is safe to use over a long period of time because what it does is that it constricts the blood vessels giving of a more whitist appearance. So i won't even mention the name for you to wanna give this a try, however, my point for today's lesson is to take better care of your eye and follow your Doctor's instructions so you do not complain of a non-white eye someday.
Conclusion
Your eye is your window to this world, do well to take better care of it, ensure that you avoid self medication, over the counter drugs without comprehensive examination or prescription and please do well to have regular eye care checks at your nearest eye care facility.
@nattybongoWhen in doubt speak to profession, take good care of yourself, eat healthy and stay health and i do wish you a blissful week. Cheers!
Further Reading
Tran, A. Q., Hoeppner, C., Venkateswaran, N., Choi, D. S., & Lee, W. W. (2017). Complications of cosmetic eye whitening. Cutis, 100(3), E24–E26..
Burns, S. M., & Stewart, S. S. (1989). Phenylephrine. Critical care nurse, 9(8), 12–13..
Trifiletti, E., D'Ascenzo, S., Lugli, L., Cocco, V. M., Di Bernardo, G. A., Iani, C., Rubichi, S., Nicoletti, R., & Vezzali, L. (2020). Truth and lies in your eyes: Pupil dilation of White participants in truthful and deceptive responses to White and Black partners. PloS one, 15(10), e0239512. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0239512.