Squint

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A man squinting on a sunny day Oscar del solar.JPG
A man squinting on a sunny day

Squinting is the action of looking at something with partially closed eyes. [1]

Squinting is most often practiced by people who suffer from refractive errors of the eye who either do not have or are not using their glasses. Squinting helps momentarily improve their eyesight by slightly changing the shape of the eye to make it rounder, which helps light properly reach the fovea. Squinting also decreases the amount of light entering the eye, making it easier to focus on what the observer is looking at by removing rays of light which enter the eye at an angle and would need to otherwise be focused by the observer's faulty lens and cornea. [2] [3]

Pinhole glasses, which severely restrict the amount of light entering the cornea, have the same effect as squinting. [4]

It is a common belief that squinting worsens eyesight. However, according to Robert MacLaren, a professor of ophthalmology at the University of Oxford, this is nothing more than an old wives' tale: the only damage that can be caused by squinting for long periods is a temporary headache due to prolonged contraction of the facial muscles. [5]

Squinting is also a common involuntary reflex, especially among people with light colored eyes, during adaptation to a sudden change in lighting such as when one goes from a dark room to outdoors on a sunny day to avoid pain or discomfort of the eyes. [6] The pupillary light reflex caused by adjustment to light takes around five minutes in people with healthy eyes, so squinting and pain after that could be a sign of photophobia.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Glasses</span> Form of vision aid

Glasses, also known as eyeglasses or spectacles, are vision eyewear with lenses mounted in a frame that holds them in front of a person's eyes, typically utilizing a bridge over the nose and hinged arms that rest over the ears.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tears</span> Clear liquid secreted from glands in eyes of mammals

Tears are a clear liquid secreted by the lacrimal glands found in the eyes of all land mammals. Tears are made up of water, electrolytes, proteins, lipids, and mucins that form layers on the surface of eyes. The different types of tears—basal, reflex, and emotional—vary significantly in composition.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eye</span> Organ that detects light and converts it into electro-chemical impulses in neurons

Eyes are organs of the visual system. They provide living organisms with vision, the ability to receive and process visual detail, as well as enabling several photo response functions that are independent of vision. Eyes detect light and convert it into electro-chemical impulses in neurons (neurones). In higher organisms, the eye is a complex optical system which collects light from the surrounding environment, regulates its intensity through a diaphragm, focuses it through an adjustable assembly of lenses to form an image, converts this image into a set of electrical signals, and transmits these signals to the brain through complex neural pathways that connect the eye via the optic nerve to the visual cortex and other areas of the brain. Eyes with resolving power have come in ten fundamentally different forms, and 96% of animal species possess a complex optical system. Image-resolving eyes are present in molluscs, chordates and arthropods.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Esotropia</span> Form of strabismus

Esotropia is a form of strabismus in which one or both eyes turns inward. The condition can be constantly present, or occur intermittently, and can give the affected individual a "cross-eyed" appearance. It is the opposite of exotropia and usually involves more severe axis deviation than esophoria. Esotropia is sometimes erroneously called "lazy eye", which describes the condition of amblyopia; a reduction in vision of one or both eyes that is not the result of any pathology of the eye and cannot be resolved by the use of corrective lenses. Amblyopia can, however, arise as a result of esotropia occurring in childhood: In order to relieve symptoms of diplopia or double vision, the child's brain will ignore or "suppress" the image from the esotropic eye, which when allowed to continue untreated will lead to the development of amblyopia. Treatment options for esotropia include glasses to correct refractive errors, the use of prisms, orthoptic exercises, or eye muscle surgery. The term is from Greek eso meaning "inward" and trope meaning "a turning".

Photokeratitis or ultraviolet keratitis is a painful eye condition caused by exposure of insufficiently protected eyes to the ultraviolet (UV) rays from either natural or artificial sources. Photokeratitis is akin to a sunburn of the cornea and conjunctiva.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Keratoconus</span> Medical condition involving the eye

Keratoconus (KC) is a disorder of the eye that results in progressive thinning of the cornea. This may result in blurry vision, double vision, nearsightedness, irregular astigmatism, and light sensitivity leading to poor quality-of-life. Usually both eyes are affected. In more severe cases a scarring or a circle may be seen within the cornea.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cornea</span> Transparent front layer of the eye

The cornea is the transparent front part of the eye that covers the iris, pupil, and anterior chamber. Along with the anterior chamber and lens, the cornea refracts light, accounting for approximately two-thirds of the eye's total optical power. In humans, the refractive power of the cornea is approximately 43 dioptres. The cornea can be reshaped by surgical procedures such as LASIK.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bates method</span> Ineffective alternative eyesight improvement therapy

The Bates method is an ineffective and potentially dangerous alternative therapy aimed at improving eyesight. Eye-care physician William Horatio Bates (1860–1931) held the erroneous belief that the extraocular muscles effected changes in focus and that "mental strain" caused abnormal action of these muscles; hence he believed that relieving such "strain" would cure defective vision. In 1952, optometry professor Elwin Marg wrote of Bates, "Most of his claims and almost all of his theories have been considered false by practically all visual scientists."

Photophobia is a medical symptom of abnormal intolerance to visual perception of light. As a medical symptom photophobia is not a morbid fear or phobia, but an experience of discomfort or pain to the eyes due to light exposure or by presence of actual physical sensitivity of the eyes, though the term is sometimes additionally applied to abnormal or irrational fear of light such as heliophobia. The term photophobia comes from the Greek φῶς (phōs), meaning "light", and φόβος (phóbos), meaning "fear".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Strabismus</span> Eyes not aligning when looking at something

Strabismus is a vision disorder in which the eyes do not properly align with each other when looking at an object. The eye that is pointed at an object can alternate. The condition may be present occasionally or constantly. If present during a large part of childhood, it may result in amblyopia, or lazy eyes, and loss of depth perception. If onset is during adulthood, it is more likely to result in double vision.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Visual acuity</span> Clarity of vision

Visual acuity (VA) commonly refers to the clarity of vision, but technically rates a person's ability to recognize small details with precision. Visual acuity depends on optical and neural factors. Optical factors of the eye influence the sharpness of an image on its retina. Neural factors include the health and functioning of the retina, of the neural pathways to the brain, and of the interpretative faculty of the brain.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dry eye syndrome</span> Medical condition

Dry eye syndrome (DES), also known as keratoconjunctivitis sicca (KCS), is the condition of having dry eyes. Other associated symptoms include irritation, redness, discharge, and easily fatigued eyes. Blurred vision may also occur. Symptoms range from mild and occasional to severe and continuous. Scarring of the cornea may occur in untreated cases.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Refractive error</span> Problem with focusing light accurately on the retina due to the shape of the eye

Refractive error, also known as refraction error, is a problem with focusing light accurately on the retina due to the shape of the eye and or cornea. The most common types of refractive error are near-sightedness, far-sightedness, astigmatism, and presbyopia. Near-sightedness results in far away objects being blurry, far-sightedness and presbyopia result in close objects being blurry, and astigmatism causes objects to appear stretched out or blurry. Other symptoms may include double vision, headaches, and eye strain.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Human eye</span> Sensory organ of vision

The human eye is a sensory organ, part of the sensory nervous system, that reacts to visible light and allows humans to use visual information for various purposes including seeing things, keeping balance, and maintaining circadian rhythm.

Computer vision syndrome (CVS) is a condition resulting from focusing the eyes on a computer or other display device for protracted, uninterrupted periods of time and the eye's muscles being unable to recover from the constant tension required to maintain focus on a close object. Some symptoms of CVS include headaches, blurred vision, neck pain, fatigue, eye strain, dry eyes, irritated eyes, double vision, vertigo/dizziness, polyopia, and difficulty refocusing the eyes. These symptoms can be further aggravated by improper lighting conditions or air moving past the eyes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pinhole glasses</span>

Pinhole glasses, also known as stenopeic glasses, are eyeglasses with a series of pinhole-sized perforations filling an opaque sheet of plastic in place of each lens. Similar to the workings of a pinhole camera, each perforation allows only a very narrow beam of light to enter the eye which reduces the size of the circle of confusion on the retina and increases depth of field. In eyes with refractive error, the result is often a sharper image. However, a second effect may appear at the common bridge between each two adjacent holes, whereby two different rays of light coming from the same object are diffracted back toward the eye and onto different places on the retina.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Corneal abrasion</span> Scratch to the surface of the cornea of the eye

Corneal abrasion is a scratch to the surface of the cornea of the eye. Symptoms include pain, redness, light sensitivity, and a feeling like a foreign body is in the eye. Most people recover completely within three days.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pinhole occluder</span> Ophthalmological testing tool

A pinhole occluder is an opaque disk with one or more small holes through it, used by ophthalmologists, orthoptists and optometrists to test visual acuity. The occluder is a simple way to focus light, as in a pinhole camera, temporarily removing the effects of refractive errors such as myopia. Because light passes only through the center of the eye's lens, defects in the shape of the lens have no effect while the occluder is used. In this way, the ophthalmologist, orthoptist or optometrist can estimate the maximum improvement in a patient's vision that can be attained by lenses to correct errors of refraction. This can be used to distinguish visual defects caused by refractive error, which improve when the occluder is used, from other problems, which do not. The pinhole occluder can also be used in testing visual acuity in mydriatic patients. In this case, the pinhole occluder compensates for the inability to contract the iris assisting the eye in obtaining a retinal projection similar to that of a non-cycloplegic eye.

Vision of humans and other organisms depends on several organs such as the lens of the eye, and any vision correcting devices, which use optics to focus the image.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eagle eye</span>

The eagle eye is among the sharpest in the animal kingdom, with an eyesight estimated at 4 to 8 times stronger than that of the average human. Although an eagle may only weigh 10 pounds (4.5 kg), its eyes are roughly the same size as those of a human. Eagle weight varies: a small eagle could weigh 700 grams (1.5 lb), while a larger one could weigh 6.5 kilograms (14 lb); an eagle of about 10 kilograms (22 lb) weight could have eyes as big as that of a human being who weighs 200 pounds (91 kg). Although the size of the eagle eye is about the same as that of a human being, the back side shape of the eagle eye is flatter. Their eyes are stated to be larger in size than their brain, by weight. Color vision with resolution and clarity are the most prominent features of eagles' eyes, hence sharp-sighted people are sometimes referred to as "eagle-eyed". Eagles can identify five distinctly colored squirrels and locate their prey even if hidden.

References

  1. "the definition of squint". Dictionary.com. Archived from the original on 2017-12-10. Retrieved 2016-07-20.
  2. "UCSB Science Line". scienceline.ucsb.edu. Archived from the original on 2021-05-13. Retrieved 2016-07-20.
  3. Louisiana, Eye Specialists of. "How Does Squinting Improve Vision?". Archived from the original on 2016-08-10. Retrieved 2016-07-20.
  4. Gallop, O.D., Steve (30 December 2014). "Pinhole Glasses: Do they work for myopia reduction?". Vision Therapy PA Blog. Archived from the original on 2018-02-17. Retrieved 2018-02-17.
  5. MacLaren, Robert (2010-07-13). "Eyesight myths: True or false". Express.co.uk. Archived from the original on 2021-12-27. Retrieved 2016-07-20.
  6. Horne, Anupama. "Myth or fact: people with light eyes are more sensitive to sunlight | Duke Health". Archived from the original on 2021-12-27. Retrieved 2016-07-20.