The very thin nature of the skin around the eyes (orbital skin) makes it very susceptible to wrinkling over time.  Age and cigarette smoke causes the skin to lose its elasticity, but factors that induce squinting may cause premature wrinkling of the orbital skin.  How can you prevent squinting?

Wear sun protection:  We know that unprotected exposure to the sun causes squinting in bright sunlight.  Proper sunglasses are an essential item to protect as well as relax your eyes while doing the activities you enjoy outdoors.  Quality sunglasses have a number of treatments designed to provide you with clear and comfortable vision in bright sunlight, including polarization, anti-glare filters and mirrored coatings.  These treatments provide a superior viewing experience over a simple lens with a darkened tint applied to it, reducing the need for you to forcibly narrow your eyelids through squinting in order to be comfortable.  Sunlight is also accompanied by invisible ultraviolet (UV) rays which can damage the skin itself around the eyes and lead to premature wrinkling.

Make sure you have the proper eyeglass or contact lens correction:  Even a small inaccuracy in your eye wear prescription may lead to increased eye strain during strenuous visual activities and cause squinting.  It may be difficult to tell just by self-testing your vision if you could use an improvement in your prescription.  Small inaccuracies in prescription can add up to greater eyestrain and therefore more squinting after activities like computers, reading or driving.

Ensure you are in the correct “lens design” for your visual activities:  Most people do not realize that as little as 50% of the benefit of your eyeglasses comes from the doctor’s prescription.  The rest is defined by a properly selected lens design.  For example, most progressive lenses are not suitable for prolonged computer use as the “computer viewing” section in the lens is relatively small and hard to find.  Office lenses, anti-fatigue and single-vision task-specific lenses are more often prescribed for specialized tasks like computer use.  They increase the available area in the lens for the viewing task, improve visual fatigue and therefore reduce squinting.

As you can see there are several reasons why you might be squinting more than you should. Book your next appointment with one of our doctors – we will prescribe the best solution to eliminate squinting and premature wrinkling.