Causes of swelling under the eye on one side: normal and pathological

Swelling of the eyelid in one eye and other symptoms of inflammation

In this article

• Swelling of the eyelid in one eye and other symptoms of inflammation
• Causes of swelling of the eyelid of one eye
• Diseases that cause swelling
• Treatment of eyelid edema
• Treatment with traditional methods
• Prevention of edema

Let us immediately note that if the swelling of the eyelid is not accompanied by other symptoms, then it can be caused by an uncomfortable posture during sleep or an eye injury. One of the causes of swelling of one eyelid is lack of sleep, but in this case it goes away within a few hours. In other situations, it can signal pathologies of a different origin.

As a rule, swelling is accompanied by redness of the eyelid and eyeball. Sometimes it occurs due to the structural features of the eyelid of one eye: the skin on it may be somewhat thinner than on the other.

You should immediately consult a doctor if swelling of the lower or upper eyelid in one eye is accompanied by:

• severe itching that does not subside over time;
• painful sensations;
• redness of the eyelid and eye;
• excessive secretion of tears;
• purulent or mucous discharge.

Treatment

1. In the case when swelling is not a symptom of diseases of various etiologies. But only as a cosmetic problem, it is possible to eliminate swelling of the eyelids by using Pinoxide injections. This is a modern treatment used to relieve swelling and improve circulation.
2. For minor swelling, it is enough to drink a diuretic to remove excess fluid from the body (Furasimide).
3. In case of a local allergic reaction, it is necessary to identify the allergen and stop contact with it. If necessary, take an antihistamine (Diazolin, Suprastin).
4. In the treatment of inflammatory eye diseases, depending on the pathogenesis of the disease. Antiviral (Ciprofloxacin) and antibacterial drugs (Tetracycline ointment) are used locally.
5. If you suspect any disease that causes edema, immediately consult a doctor for an accurate diagnosis and adequate treatment

Causes of swelling of the eyelid of one eye

As mentioned above, swelling of the eyelid in one eye is evidence of the development of infectious or viral diseases. Swelling occurs as a result of a violation of the water-salt balance. Also, swelling in one eye can develop as a result of:

• allergic reactions (due to point contact with an allergen or insect bite);
• leakage of cerebrospinal fluid;
• eye strain;
• problems with the thyroid gland;
• problems with blood flow;
• pathological processes in blood vessels, kidneys or heart.

Causes of puffiness under one eye

The causes of swelling under one eye are varied. This condition is caused by allergic reactions of the body, disruption of internal organs, head and face injuries, infectious diseases, and dental problems.

Kidneys

When the right or left eye swells, this indicates renal failure and other kidney diseases. A particularly characteristic symptom is the frequent occurrence of edema. They appear every day and gradually disappear in the evening. The body retains fluid, the kidneys work poorly and are not able to remove it in the required volume.

Allergy

The body's protective reaction upon contact with a foreign allergen is accompanied by allergic swelling that affects one part of the body. The allergy is accompanied by redness and itching. The swelling goes away on its own in 2-3 days, and even faster with drug treatment. This allergy occurs from time to time upon contact with an allergen.

This condition is provoked by:

• cosmetical tools;
• insect bites;
• plant pollen;
• chemical substances;
• animal hair;
• food products.

Injuries

Swelling due to injury occurs when the integrity of the skin is damaged and the mucous membrane is damaged. Occurs as a result of receiving a blow to the eye, an unsuccessful fall, damage by foreign bodies and objects, or midge bites. In such cases, the swelling subsides on its own within 7-10 days.

This condition also manifests itself with injury to the frontal part of the head. There is dizziness, pain, nausea.

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With burns of the cornea and face, the tissues swell and turn red. Accompanied by a burning sensation and pain.

Infections and diseases

Swelling of one or both eyes is caused by infections and diseases of the eyes and eyelids:

• Barley. Inflammation of the ciliary bulb. An abscess forms in the area of ​​the affected eyelid, which breaks, hurts, itches, and swells. Occurs after infection, most often staphylococcal bacteria. After the purulent formation breaks through, the condition improves.

• Conjunctivitis. Inflammation of the mucous membrane of the eye. Occurs when an infection occurs. One or two eyes are infected at the same time. A large amount of pus is released, the sclera turns red, accompanied by itching and inflammatory swelling of the eyelids. May be a symptom of a cold. The most common cause of swelling of one eye.

• Blepharitis. Inflammation of the ciliary edges of the eyelids. The disease is caused by improper eye hygiene and excessive eye strain. Accompanied by burning, itching, swelling and redness. This cause affects the upper or lower eyelid.

• Tear duct infection. An infection penetrates into the canal, itching, redness, pus discharge, increased lacrimation, and tissue swelling develop.

• Keratitis. Inflammation of the cornea. Accompanied by redness of the sclera, swelling, itching. A feature of the disease is a thin film on the cornea, which impairs vision.

• Dry eye syndrome. Reduces or completely stops the production of natural tears. Redness, burning, stabbing pain, irritation of the mucous membrane, and swelling occur.

Sleeping on your left side

When sleeping on the left side, internal vessels and arteries are compressed, and blood circulation is disrupted. Blood stagnates and the left or right eye swells after sleep. Swelling occurs in the morning and resolves within a few hours.

Heart

In case of cardiovascular disease, it causes swelling of the left or right eye and manifests itself in the evening. The heart works slower, cannot cope with venous outflow, and blood pumping is disrupted. The blood stagnates and swelling forms on the face.

Internal organs

If one or two eyes are swollen, this indicates a disorder in the internal organs. These include:

• Liver dysfunction. There is a disruption in the circulation of fluid in the body, it accumulates in the peritoneum, and the abdomen enlarges. Gradually, swelling forms in the facial area.
• Intervertebral hernia of the cervical spine. At the initial stage of this disease, swelling in the eye area appears. Next, stiffness in head movement and constant pain develop.
• Disease of the respiratory system. When inflammatory processes appear in the lungs and nasal cavity, swelling occurs in only one eye, which is located closer to the source of inflammation.

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Pituitary gland disorder

When the pituitary gland malfunctions, the production of hormones is disrupted. They stimulate increased accumulation of fluid in the body, resulting in swelling in the facial area. Swelling appears in the morning and gradually subsides in the evening.

Dental diseases

Why does the left or right eye swell due to dental diseases? Extensive inflammatory processes in the oral cavity such as gingivitis, gumboil, tooth root inflammation, purulent cyst, cause swelling of the left or right eye. The purulent process affects a large number of tissues. Accompanied by tissue compression, pain, insomnia, and difficulty chewing.

Diseases that cause swelling

What diseases can be accompanied by swelling of the lower or upper eyelid of one eye? There are quite a lot of them, but the most popular of them are:

1. Stye: during it, an abscess appears on the lower or upper eyelid of one eye, which is very painful. The skin of the affected eyelid turns red, sometimes the body temperature rises, and fever occurs. The swelling goes away after the purulent contents come out of the formation.
2. Conjunctivitis - swelling can also occur in one eye, although most often both eyelids swell.
3. Dacryocystitis is a disease in which obstruction of the lacrimal canaliculus occurs in one eye, resulting in inflammation. Dacryocystitis can be acute and chronic: in acute cases, the swelling is quite severe, while chronic dacryocystitis is characterized by moderate swelling of the eyelids. Also, when pressed, pus may come out of the affected lacrimal canaliculus.
4. Blepharitis - quite often has a unilateral form, so swelling of the upper eyelid of one eye may occur. Pain and redness of the eyelids, which are standard for eye diseases, are complemented by loss of eyelashes. If the disease is not noticed in time, it can spread to the conjunctival membrane, which negatively affects the quality of vision.

5. Allergies to insect bites, low-quality cosmetics, foods, pollen, medications, etc. In this case, the main thing is to quickly identify the allergen and exclude the patient’s contact with it. After this, as part of treatment, the patient needs to take antihistamines and decongestants.

Causes

Let us note right away that swelling under the eye may appear for completely different reasons. There is an area under the left eye where excess fluid accumulates directly in the skin of the eyelids. It can accumulate in adipose tissue, as a result of which the skin seems to be squeezed forward due to the growth in size of the fiber. Also, accumulations form in the eyelids as a result of injuries to the forehead and bridge of the nose.

Swelling under the eye is often considered a purely cosmetic defect. In this case, the left eye can be easily masked so that it stops reacting to stimuli. In such situations, the appearance of edema is caused by the use of cosmetics that are unsuitable for your body or simply of poor quality. It is important to give your skin a rest and then start using only high-quality cosmetics after some time. Then the swelling under the eye should soon disappear without a trace. The left eye in this situation is just as likely to be damaged as the right.

Remember that you should not use too aggressive products to cleanse your skin. For example, creams with an oily structure, which in principle are not intended for delicate and thin skin, you may also be at risk if you constantly use thick foundations and powders that are not suitable for the skin around the eyes.

Treatment of eyelid edema

You can relieve swelling by using decongestants. However, it is important to determine the cause of swelling of the upper or lower eyelid, and only a specialist can do this, so at the first alarming symptoms you should visit the clinic.

If swelling has developed as a result of an allergic reaction, the specialist will prescribe antihistamines and hormonal drugs in the form of drops and ointments. Most often, doctors recommend using hydrocortisone ointment, opatanol, cromohexal.

If the cause of the swelling is bacteria, drops and ointments are used that have an antibacterial effect - they eliminate the pathogenic microflora that provokes the development of edema.

Antibiotics are selected based on the patient’s age, stage of the disease and the cause of its occurrence. For barley and blepharitis, ointments are used that are placed under the eyelid three times a day: for these diseases, drops do not help much. Treatment lasts for about a week.

For disinfection, you can use boric acid, which is dissolved in water (5 g per 100 g of boiled water). You need to rinse your eyes with this solution up to 3 times a day.

You can also take tablets with a decongestant effect: Claritin, Zodak, Tavegil.

Treatment directed at the underlying disease

If the swelling is caused by somatic reasons, it will not be possible to get rid of it using symptomatic methods. By eliminating the cause - the underlying disease - you will also remove the cause of the swelling under the eye.

Allergic reaction

Treatment of edema due to allergies is carried out comprehensively: with the help of antihistamines and drops. Medicines are prescribed by a doctor and used under his supervision.

Antihistamine tablets block certain receptors, reducing the intensity of the allergic reaction. The following drugs are often prescribed:

• Suprastin;
• Claritin;
• Erius;
• Allegra;
• Tavegil;
• Zyrtec.

Products in drop form eliminate itching, redness and swelling. Popular eye drops:

• Visallergol;
• Okumetil;
• Visine;
• Allergoferon;
• Octilia.

An important factor in recovery is identifying the allergen and minimizing contact with it. An allergist will help identify the irritant.

Inflammatory processes

Infectious eye diseases (conjunctivitis, blepharitis, stye) are always accompanied by the appearance of swelling. Therapy includes the use of broad-spectrum antibiotics, regenerating ointments, and antihistamines. The exact treatment is determined by the ophthalmologist.

For conjunctivitis (inflammation of the mucous membrane of the eye), therapy is usually carried out with the following groups of drugs:

• antibiotics (tetracycline or erythromycin ointment, Ofloxacin);
• antivirals (Zovirax);
• antiallergic drops, tablets or ointments (Claritin, Loratadine);
• synthetic analogues of tears (Vizin).

Kidney diseases

In nephrological pathologies, facial swelling is one of the first markers of the disease. It occurs for several reasons:

• increased permeability of blood vessels (with glomerulonephritis, a number of infections);
• decreased glomerular filtration rate;
• hypoproteinuria.

Treatment with traditional methods

In addition to medications, traditional medicine methods will help relieve swelling from the eyelid. The use of each of them must be agreed with the doctor and correctly included in the treatment regimen.

Some remedies are listed below:

1. Pour 20 grams of finely chopped fresh parsley with a glass of boiling water and leave for half an hour for the broth to infuse. Divide the liquid into equal parts and drink it three times a day. You should not prepare the product for future use: the infusion must be fresh.
2. Make a decoction of chamomile, calendula, mint and freeze it in ice cube trays. Wrap the resulting cubes in gauze and keep on the swollen eye for 5 minutes. You should not keep the compress for more than the specified time: this can cause damage to blood vessels. Repeat the procedure three times a day. Using a frozen decoction, you can not only remove puffiness from the lower and upper eyelids, but also restore skin color.
3. Grate the apple on a fine grater, wrap it in gauze and place it on your eye. Apple juice should get on the damaged eyelid, so the gauze should be folded into no more than two layers. The procedure time is 15 minutes.
4. Grate equal amounts of carrots and parsley, mix them and apply this paste to your closed eyes for 15 minutes. Afterwards, rinse it off with cool water.

5. A cucumber-honey mask is also quite effective, but in this case it is important to make sure that there is no allergic reaction to honey. To prepare it, you need to mix honey and cucumber juice in a ratio of 1:2. The resulting mixture is applied to the swollen eyelid for 10 minutes.

How to deal with this?

Naturally, as soon as swelling appears on the eye, you want to get rid of it immediately. It greatly spoils the appearance, and in general its presence indicates that something has gone wrong in the body. How to get rid of swelling as quickly as possible? The easiest way is to apply a cool compress. You can apply ice wrapped in a towel, or simply wet the towel with cool water, lie down and place a compress over your eyes. You can also make green tea compresses or simply place cool silver spoons on your eyes. You need to keep the compress for about 15-20 minutes - this will be enough.

Treatment of swelling under the eye

A drop of vitamin E diluted in water is considered a good remedy against edema; compresses are also made from the resulting solution. Just soak a cotton pad in it and place it on your closed eyelids. This remedy also helps get rid of dark circles and bruises.

Table. Masks against edema and swelling.

On a note! Each mask is applied for 15-20 minutes, and then simply washed off with clean water.

Folk remedies for bags under the eyes

Prevention of edema

If inflammatory processes have begun, it will not be possible to avoid eyelid swelling in one eye (or both at once). However, certain measures will help reduce the likelihood of its occurrence. Among these measures:

• giving up bad habits and following the principles of a healthy lifestyle;
• proper nutrition: eating plenty of fruits and vegetables and reducing the amount of fatty foods in the diet;
• healthy and regular sleep of at least 6 hours;
• regular ventilation of the living space.

If you suspect the development of diseases, you must immediately contact a specialist without wasting time on self-medication. Remember that self-prescribing medications can cause serious problems. Even if it is possible to remove swelling from the lower or upper eyelid without the help of a specialist, the cause of its occurrence will remain unidentified. An untreated disease can lead to serious complications, which will be much more difficult to get rid of.

Prevention

To reduce the risk of swelling in the eye area, it is recommended to change your diet, that is, reduce the consumption of salty and smoked foods, as well as marinades. You can eat everything, but in moderation, but in the evening hours it is better to completely avoid the consumption of such food. It is also important to get enough sleep and proper rest. Without this, a good appearance cannot be achieved. It is also recommended not to forget to take care of your facial skin.

How to avoid puffiness under the eyes

On a note! As a means of preventing swelling under the eyes, it is very good to periodically go for massages intended specifically for the face. You can also perform simple eyelid exercises at home.

How to remove puffiness under the eyes

The simplest methods for eliminating swelling under the eyes are based on the need to accelerate the outflow of lymph and narrow the local blood vessels. Any cold compress will do for this. The easiest way is to place a cotton pad soaked in clean water in the freezer for a few seconds, then apply it to your eyes. The duration of such a compress is a couple of minutes. Any product from the freezer, pre-wrapped in cotton cloth, is also suitable for quick cold.

An excellent way to relieve swelling and increase local tone are compresses from tea bags. To do this, just dip the bags in hot water for a couple of seconds and immediately apply to the swollen areas around the eyes. The duration of this compress is 5 minutes.

Pharmaceutical products that have absorbable and blood-thinning properties work better. Here you can note such local preparations as troxevasin ointment, Lyoton gel, Troxerutin, as well as more expensive cosmetics - Skin Doctors Eyetuck, Lierac Dioptigel, La Rosche-Posay Hydraphase Intense Yeux. They can be purchased at pharmacies or specialized cosmetic stores or salons.

If you have the financial opportunity, you can resort to cosmetic procedures. Specialists can offer such types of manipulations as darsonvalization, electrical stimulation, mesotherapy. By the way, today you can also purchase devices for home darsonvalization. If you strictly follow the instructions, then in addition to relieving swelling, a person will notice a significant increase in skin turgor and an improvement in complexion.

Some people try to remove swelling under the eyes with diuretics. Diuretics remove water from the body, but at the same time change the concentration of its components. This is especially important, and it is the violation of salt metabolism that subsequently becomes an even greater problem, and therefore this method can only be used after the recommendation of the attending physician.

A good way to get rid of swelling is to massage this area. This will improve lymph flow. Massage is done only on cleansed skin. The lymphatic drainage effect can be achieved with these exercises:

1. On the temples you need to make 10 circular movements clockwise. It is better to carry out movements with the middle finger.
2. From the outer corner of the eye to the inner corner along the bottom line, you need to apply soft pressing movements with your fingers. Along the top line, such movements are carried out in the opposite direction. Repeat 3 times.
3. Using your fingertips, press first on the upper and then on the lower eyelid. Each movement is 10 seconds.
4. Using patting movements with your fingertips, draw from the bottom of the eye from the outer corner to the inner, and vice versa from above.
5. Wash with cold water and apply healing cream.

And of course, if this pathology is a symptom of a disease, then it must be treated. Removing swelling under the eye in this case will be useless until the impaired functioning of the system or organ is restored. If swelling is caused by prolonged lack of sleep, then it is better to correct the situation with good sleep.