Putting eyesight at risk

Monklands social media users taking part in viral Tiktok challenges are putting themselves at risk of blindness, an expert has warned.

Andrew Mcgonagle, optometrist director at Specsavers in Airdrie and Coatbridge, is urging people not to take part in these trends, which sees them exposing their eyes to bright lights and toxic substances.

He told the Advertiser:‘these challenges can be extremely dangerous and can put your eye health at risk.

“It really isn’t worth jeopardising your sight for a sake of a few likes and shares on social media.”

One of the challenges going viral on the platform sees people certain household items in a bag and holding it up to their eyes.

It is thought this will make them appear brighter – however this has been proven not to be the case.

Andrew said:“simply, don’t do it. Apart from the fact that it won’t make your eyes any brighter, if the bag splits and the contents leak out it could cause issues such as corneal scarring, extreme pain and blindness.”

Another video doing the rounds on social media sees users trying to change their eye colour from brown to blue by exposing the eye to bright light while using a filter on their phones.

The “fingereyechallenge”is also making appearances on people’s feeds, which while not as invasive as the others mentioned, could still cause some damage to people’s vision.

It involves someone holding their finger over one eye while looking towards that finger with the opposite eye.

Videos see them holding it in place for 10-to-15 seconds before moving their finger, resulting in eyes temporarily pointing in different directions.

Andrew said:‘there are six different muscles controlling the movement of each eye and it only requires one of these 12 eye muscles to become misaligned for any reasons for a squint and double vision to occur.

“Optometrists will sometimes use tests similar to the finger challenge to test the strength of the eye muscles but in a very controlled and safe way.

“We would advise against people carrying out these tests on themselves as it could result in eye strain and temporary double vision.”

For more information, or to book yourself an eye test with your local Specsavers team, visit https://www. specsavers.co.uk/