Many makeup wearers choose to line the inside of their eyelids posterior to the lash line with eyeliner. If the patient is a contact lens wearer, as in this image, the surface integrity of the contact lens can be compromised resulting in increased risk of infection as bacteria more easily bond to a disrupted surface. It can also decrease comfort of the lens and cause irritation of the palpebral conjunctiva as blinking causes the conjunctiva to rub across the roughened surface. The effect can heightened in a toric contact lens wearer since the rotational stabilization required for the toric optics prevents the lens from rotating and keeps the irritant rubbing on the same tissues. In addition to the contact lens complications, makeup can block the meibomian glands and exacerbate dry eye, the effect is worsened if the eyeliner used is waterproof.
Ophthalmic Atlas Images by EyeRounds.org, The University of Iowa are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
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