A mother-of-two has revealed she was left almost blind after failing to remove her mascara for 25 years - leaving her with solid black lumps embedded beneath her eyelids.
Theresa Lynch, 50, from Sydney, sought medical advice after suffering from eye irritation, discharge and an uncomfortable sensation beneath her eyelids that lubricating gels and eyedrops would not alleviate.
The housekeeper, who is originally from Maryland in the US but now lives in Australia, was shocked when doctors discovered she had hard calcified bumps, known as concretions, under her eyelids.
The lumps posed a serious risk to her vision and it took general anaesthetic and a 90-minute procedure to remove them.
Describing the effect of the mascara build-up, Theresa said she started feeling a strange sensation as if something was lodged under her eyelids.
'[The lumps] were embedded so deep that particles were building up on top of each other', she explained.
'I was so uncomfortable. My eyelids were swollen and heavy because I left it for so long.
'When Dr Robaei pulled my eyelid back, she said: "Oh my god.. In my whole career I have seen anything this".
'She could see the whites of my eyes were glassy and bloodshot.'
Theresa said she was left shocked by Dr. Robaei's discovery, and was worried she had done 'permanent damage' to her eyelid.
'I had fallen into a bad habit of wearing a lot of makeup and not washing it off. I should never have let it get this far,' she explained.
'It's so important to properly take your makeup off every single night. You can't miss a single day.'
Dr Robaei, who has published a study on Theresa's injuries, said she had never seen anything like it - and she could have risked going blind.
She said the case was an important platform to raise awareness about the hidden dangers of the everyday beauty product.
Dr Robaei, who is Consultant Ophthalmologist at Forest Eye Surgery, found multiple dark spots, which were caused by an accumulation of small fragments of mascara that had lodged under both eyelids.
The study, published by the American Academy of Opthamology, the spots were darkly pigmented 'subconjunctivital concretions' which were linked to a form of conjunctivitis.
These were consistent with years of mascara use, with fragments of unwashed mascara depositing under her eyelids over the years.
Dr. Robaei said: 'Every time Theresa was blinking these bumps were rubbing on the surface of the eye and they pose a risk to her vision.
'If the scratch on the surface of the eye got infected, there is a risk this could be a potentially blinding but that would be rare.
'It was certainly disabling. She has suffered permanent scarring on her eyelid and the surface of her cornea.
'The symptoms are like somebody throwing a handful of sand in your eye, it's constantly irritating.'
She added: 'Not many women are treating the removal of their mascara seriously.. You must be meticulous.
'This was an amazing case, I'd never seen anything like it. But this is a risk not many people are aware of.'
Theresa Lynch, 50, from Sydney, sought medical advice after suffering from eye irritation, discharge and an uncomfortable sensation beneath her eyelids that lubricating gels and eyedrops would not alleviate.
The housekeeper, who is originally from Maryland in the US but now lives in Australia, was shocked when doctors discovered she had hard calcified bumps, known as concretions, under her eyelids.
The lumps posed a serious risk to her vision and it took general anaesthetic and a 90-minute procedure to remove them.
Describing the effect of the mascara build-up, Theresa said she started feeling a strange sensation as if something was lodged under her eyelids.
'[The lumps] were embedded so deep that particles were building up on top of each other', she explained.
'I was so uncomfortable. My eyelids were swollen and heavy because I left it for so long.
'When Dr Robaei pulled my eyelid back, she said: "Oh my god.. In my whole career I have seen anything this".
'She could see the whites of my eyes were glassy and bloodshot.'
Theresa said she was left shocked by Dr. Robaei's discovery, and was worried she had done 'permanent damage' to her eyelid.
'I had fallen into a bad habit of wearing a lot of makeup and not washing it off. I should never have let it get this far,' she explained.
'It's so important to properly take your makeup off every single night. You can't miss a single day.'
Dr Robaei, who has published a study on Theresa's injuries, said she had never seen anything like it - and she could have risked going blind.
She said the case was an important platform to raise awareness about the hidden dangers of the everyday beauty product.
Dr Robaei, who is Consultant Ophthalmologist at Forest Eye Surgery, found multiple dark spots, which were caused by an accumulation of small fragments of mascara that had lodged under both eyelids.
The study, published by the American Academy of Opthamology, the spots were darkly pigmented 'subconjunctivital concretions' which were linked to a form of conjunctivitis.
These were consistent with years of mascara use, with fragments of unwashed mascara depositing under her eyelids over the years.
Dr. Robaei said: 'Every time Theresa was blinking these bumps were rubbing on the surface of the eye and they pose a risk to her vision.
'If the scratch on the surface of the eye got infected, there is a risk this could be a potentially blinding but that would be rare.
'It was certainly disabling. She has suffered permanent scarring on her eyelid and the surface of her cornea.
'The symptoms are like somebody throwing a handful of sand in your eye, it's constantly irritating.'
She added: 'Not many women are treating the removal of their mascara seriously.. You must be meticulous.
'This was an amazing case, I'd never seen anything like it. But this is a risk not many people are aware of.'
Music: "Unwritten Return" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
Source: Daily Mail, Yahoo, Aaojournal
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