Are your eyes prone to dryness, redness, irritation, or watering? Eyelash extensions should definitely not be on your to do list. A new study followed the self-reported comfort and ocular surface health of 32 healthy, young adults (average age was 25) with no previous history of dry eye or ocular surface discomfort after eyelash extension application. Lashes were applied using a standard protocol: ethyl cyanoacrylate glue was used to adhere false lashes to the upper eyelid eyelashes 1 mm from the eyelid margin, and then the glue was set using a fan. The patients symptoms and ocular health was monitored over 1 hour, 1 day, 1 week, and 1 month after getting eyelash extensions.
The majority of patients (84%) experienced ocular irritation within 1 hour of getting eyelash extensions, the most common of which was reported as foreign body sensation (59.38%). These discomfort symptoms resolved at the 1 week follow-up for most patients.
Ocular surface evaluation showed corneal staining (superficial punctate keratitis or erosions) was highest within 1 hour of lash extension application. While this corneal staining improved over the rest of the observation period, tear break up time (TBUT) was it's lowest compared to baseline at 1 week following lash extension application, and remained reduced even at the 1 month follow-up compared to baseline.
Why do eyelash extensions cause dry eye? There are several theories:
- the cyanoacrylate glue causes irritation and damage to the corneal tissue when lashes are applied (in some people it can even cause an allergic reaction!)
- the fan used to set the glue causes the cornea to dry out
- the extra weight of the false lashes causes reduced blink rate and poor overnight eyelid closure
- the extra length of the eyelashes effectively creates a wind tunnel fanning the eye, drying the surface of the eye
- this study gives exact mathematical calculations of how eyelash length changes air flow dynamics
- to reduce shearing wind tunnel effects, the optimal eyelash length is 0.35 mm +/- 0.15 or 1/3 the width of your eye
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