Ptosis is a condition that causes the upper eyelid of one or both eyes to droop over your eye. It usually limits vision since the eyelid sags to the extent it covers the pupil. The condition usually occurs due to aging, but children can also be born with it. Thankfully, ptosis is not that serious, and you can even treat it from any ptosis Peoria centers countrywide.
How would you know that you have the condition so that you see a doctor? Below are the signs and symptoms of ptosis to watch out for.
Difficulty Keeping Your Eyes Open
Ptosis affects the levator palebrae superioris, which is a major muscle that opens the eyelid. Another muscle that it affects is the superior tarsal muscle. These muscles assume a relaxed position, which means you will need significant effort to open and close your eyes.
Such a problem slows down your activity at work or school. That is because you will put much more effort into controlling your eye movements than doing the required tasks.
Watery Eyes
The condition makes the eyelid occupy part of your eye, so the eye will perceive it as a foreign object. As a result, it will produce a lot of tears to get rid of. As long as the eyelid is on the way, you will continually produce tears.
Having watery eyes is quite irritating since you will have to keep cleaning the tears. Furthermore, the excess tears limit your vision as if the eyelid doing that was not already bad enough.
Lazy Eye
People with this symptom usually have one eye that tends to wander in different directions. Therefore, a lazy eye is not the same as a crossed eye. The affected eye is normally unable to see well since the brain does not recognize signals from it. As it continues to ignore the eye, you will soon be unable to see from it completely.
People who have this symptom will usually have double vision. That means there is a chance they could bump into objects frequently. If you observe someone who runs into objects, it is a clear sign they need an ophthalmologist’s help.
Astigmatism
This vision challenge occurs due to an error in the shape of the cornea. The cornea will develop an irregular curve, and that will affect how light refracts to the retina. As a result, you will have blurry or distorted visions.
Also, if you have this symptom, you may either experience myopia or hyperopia. The former makes far objects appear blurry, while the latter makes close objects appear blurry.
Headache
You will usually experience this ache around the forehead. The headache occurs due to eye strain. Remember, your vision becomes limited, so you will overuse your muscles to see.
It is even worse when you have to use your phone or computer. That means you will likely spend a lot of time on them since you will struggle to see what is on them.
Conclusion
Ptosis causes nearly every eye problem you can think of. If you even delay treatment, some issues could become permanent. As soon as you notice these symptoms, it would be best to see the doctor. The surgeons can restore your eye shape and usually do that through levator advancement.
After your surgery, you may experience blurry distance vision for two weeks, so do not panic when that happens. Your doctor will ask you to use eye drops and stay away from contacts.
