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Lifestyle and home remedies
By Mayo Clinic staffThese lifestyle tips may relieve your discomfort until you have surgery:
- Use eye lubricants. To help protect against vision-threatening cornea damage, use artificial tears and eye ointments to keep your cornea lubricated. Using an eye ointment and a moisture shield, which you wear over your eye, seals in moisture and is particularly useful overnight.
- Wipe your eyes carefully. Constantly wiping watery eyes can make your under-eye muscles and tendons stretch even further, making ectropion worse. If you must wipe your eye, use an up-and-in motion, wiping from the outer eye up and in toward the nose.
- Use skin tape. To temporarily tighten your lower lid and relieve some ectropion symptoms, you can use skin tape on the sides of your eyes. Ask your doctor to demonstrate the correct use and position of skin tape before you try it.
References
- McPhee SJ, et al. Current Medical Diagnosis & Treatment 2012. 51st ed. New York, N.Y.: The McGraw-Hill Companies; 2012. http://www.accessmedicine.com/resourceTOC.aspx?resourceID=1. Accessed Nov. 26, 2012.
- Yanoff M, et al. Ophthalmology. 3rd ed. Edinburgh, U.K.: Mosby Elsevier; 2009. http://www.mdconsult.com/das/book/body/212799885-2/0/1869/0.html.. Accessed Nov. 26, 2012.
- Entropion and ectropion. The Merck Manuals: The Merck Manual for Healthcare Professionals. http://www.merckmanuals.com/professional/eye_disorders/eyelid_and_lacrimal_disorders/entropion_and_ectropion.html#v954320. Accessed Nov. 26, 2012.
- Ectropion — Eyelids that turn out. American Society of Ophthalmic Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery. http://www.asoprs.org/files/public/infoectropion.pdf. Accessed Nov. 19, 2012.
- De Menezes Bedran EG, et al. Ectropion. Seminars in Ophthalmology. 2010;25:59.
- Hegde V, et al. Drug-induced ectropion: What is best practice? Ophthalmology. 2007;114:362.
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