Thursday, October 10, 2013

If the white part of my eye is getting yellow, should I be worried?

The conjunctiva (thin transparent skin that covers the white of the eye, you can move it with your finger if you so dare) and sclera (the actual white harder structure that forms the eye) may both be affected and change colors for various reasons.  Even though they look like one complete structure it's important for this lesson to understand that they are separate and can be effected differently with varying prognosis.

Let's take the conjunctival tissue first, explain it's similarities to skin and how it reacts to the exterior elements.  As previously mentioned, it's loose on the surface of the eye and is completely transparent.  It's histological formation is just like the skin all over our bodies, thankfully not exactly otherwise we'd be transparent with all our organs in plain sight, yikes!  Still it reacts to sun just like our skin, it gets darker (more yellow) and sometimes thicker.  I'm sure you've seen some form of this amongst your friends or family, a sectoral (specific spot) area in the eye is yellow, thicker with splashes of red.  We call them pinguecula (smaller yellow bump) and pterygiums (larger yellow bump getting close to the corneal center of the eye).  The sun is mostly to blame for their existence.  Therefore UV protection (aka sunglasses) is extremely important to prevent their formation.  Still both are quite harmless in the realm of health, both can be surgically removed for cosmetic or visual reasons.  

Now the sclera is a more bone-like structure, it's how the eye maintains it's round, firm shape.  This is where we get the milky white color, actually the sclera is a hue of blue but it's perceived as white to us.  When this appears to yellow consuming the whole eye, it leads us to believe there may be systemic involvement.  We consider the patient may be suffering from problems in the liver, pancreas, spleen or blood (usually sickle cell anemia).  In most cases we highly advice blood work by the patient's primary care physician (your regular doctor) in order to rule out any serious life threatening diseases.  Eyes are an amazing tool, as optometrist we can connect your entire body's health to small parts of your eye.  Some say eyes are the window to the soul, I say they are the window to your health.  Get your eyes checked every year and you'll learn how preventive medicine can really help.

See and Be Seen! at Eyed LA Optometry in Brentwood, West Los Angeles
www.eyedla.com

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