Wuhan woman plucked out her eyelashes, causing her new eyelashes to scratch her eyes

When eyelashes fall towards the eyes, people thought they could just pull them out, but the new eyelashes grew thick and hard, and scratched the eyes. Jia Jia (pseudonym), a 20-year-old woman, had to be hospitalized for surgery because of repeated pulling of her eyelashes, which damaged her cornea. On November 2, she used her experience in the ward to remind people not to pull out eyelashes randomly.

A month ago, Jia Jia found that something always seemed to get into her eyes. She looked in the mirror and found that it was her upper eyelashes that had pierced her eyes downwards, so she used tweezers to pull out the growing eyelashes. Unexpectedly, the new eyelashes pricked her eyes even more, so she pulled them out again. This happened over and over again. The eyelashes that Jia Jia grew later were thick and hard, which made her cry continuously. She couldn't open her eyes and was completely unable to study in class.

Director Tu Huifang is performing surgery on a patient. Photo by correspondent Pei Nishang

So Jiajia came to the Aier Eye Hospital affiliated to Wuhan University. Tu Huifang, chief physician of the eyelid and orbital disease/eye plastic surgery department of the hospital, found that 1/4 of Jiajia's upper eyelid eyelashes were piercing the eyeball, directly contacting the cornea, and the conjunctiva was congested, and there were punctate epithelial defects on the cornea. Finally, Jiajia was diagnosed with entropion and trichiasis of the right eyelid and corneal epithelial damage, and needed surgical treatment.

"You can't pull out your eyelashes at home. On the one hand, pulling out your eyelashes in an environment that does not meet medical and health standards can easily lead to infection and inflammation of the hair follicles; on the other hand, pulling out your own eyelashes will not make the hair follicles disappear, and the eyelashes will still grow out after 8-10 days." Director Tu Huifang said that even if you pull out the inverted eyelashes, the new eyelashes will be thicker and harder, causing greater friction and irritation to the cornea, making it easier to scratch the cornea and cause corneal damage and other problems. Pulling out your inverted eyelashes for a long time may also lead to disordered eyelashes and multiple eyelashes. At this time, it is difficult to correct the disordered eyelashes and multiple eyelashes with surgery. Even if they are corrected, it may cause eyelid deformity.

Director Tu Huifang reminds: Generally speaking, a small number of inverted eyelashes can be treated by electrolysis to destroy the hair follicles so that they no longer grow, while an entire row of inverted eyelashes or entropion eyelashes require surgical correction. Of course, it is more important to follow the doctor's professional diagnosis and advice to decide on the final correction plan.