you noticed a white gray or bluish ring forming around the front of your eye right in front of the
iris the color part of the eye this is something called corneal arcus and in today's video we're
going to talk about exactly what that is if it's actually dangerous or if it's something you should
be concerned about and if there's actually any treatment to get rid of it let's focus in
hey howdy everybody this is Dr. Neal Guymon, Dr. EyeGuy, doing videos all about the eyes to
help you with your eyes and today's video is all about corneal arcus so right off the bat what is
corneal arcus corneal arcus is a formation of lipid or cholesterol deposits on the periphery
of the cornea the clear part of the eye and these lipid or cholesterol deposits come from
the blood vessels that run right around the cornea and they get deposited in the cornea and get stuck
there forever now the reason why it's called corneal arcus because it usually starts in an
arc form it arcs on the top part of the cornea and the bottom and as you age it can eventually
turn into a full ring right around the cornea now this is something definitely age related as we age
our lipids break down a little bit slower and our capillaries become a little bit more profuse
and so we get more lipid and cholesterol fatty deposits in that cornea now this is something
you'll probably be surprised at in the age group of 60 years old and older about 60 percent of the
people have corneal arcus when you reach 80 years old and older nearly a hundred percent of those
people have corneal arcus now you tend to notice it more in people that have really dark eyes dark
brown dark green eyes because that white or bluish grayish ring tends to stand out a little bit more
now is this something that you should actually be concerned about is this a sign of something
bad going on in the body now corneal arcus is broken down into two different categories
if you're 40 and older more specifically 60 and older it's called arcus senilis because it's more
prevalent in our seniors now if you're 40 years and younger and you have corneal arcs it's called
corneal juvenilus or corneal juvenilis and that's the category that you need to be concerned about
if you have corneal arcus younger than 40 years old that's what we need to talk about if you have
arcs juveniles you're younger than 40 years old and you're seeing this white ring then it's highly
strongly recommended that you go see your primary care provider and they'll probably do a lab work
or blood work to test for high cholesterol high lipids triglycerides to make sure that you're
systemically okay because if you're seeing this white ring and you're younger than 40 years old
it's probably a sign something systemically wrong is going on so it's highly recommended to go in
and see your doctor even the age group from 40 to 60 it can still be considered age related
and somewhat normal but still in that age group i usually tell my patients it might be a good idea
to go get your cholesterol checked go see your primary care provider do a blood workup just to
make sure there's nothing going on systemically that we're going to miss if you're older than 60
years old and you have this white ring likely it's natural age related and don't have to worry about
it you still want to be monitored and followed by your eye doctor and your primary care doctor
but likely don't have to worry about this if you're 60 years old because it's just natural and
age related now if you do feel like you're getting a white or gray ring forming around your cornea
you definitely still want to go in and get it checked out by your eye doctor likely it'll be
fine it'll just be a natural aging process nothing to worry about but your eye doctor will want to
examine the cornea also examine the inside of your eyes the retinal blood vessels just to
make sure there's nothing systemically going on that he can see in the eyes now i do want
to mention that if you just have one eye that has corneal arcus and the other eye is perfectly fine
that'd be something i'd be pretty interested in because usually corneal arcus is bilateral
on both eyes if you just have it on one eye then i'd be concerned a little bit that maybe there's
something going on with the carotid arteries maybe a blockage or something like that and so if you
just have it on one eye go into your primary care provider and this goes for any age group if you're
80 years old and you just have it on one eye i would still get it checked just to make sure that
your carotid artery is okay because usually it's both eyes and if you just have one eye it could
be sign of something else going on and just really quick i want to thank you for watching this video
and if you're finding value from this video be sure to hit that like button down below it
helps this video also my channel out to get the awareness out there so thanks for hitting that
like button for me now is there something that you actually can do for corneal arcus for this white
ring can you actually get rid of it unfortunately not it's kind of like having a tattoo permanently
on the cornea it's there forever unfortunately there's no treatment no surgery no cure
to get rid of this white ring now the good news is corneal arcus won't cause any problems to
your vision won't cause any problems to the ocular health so it's not vision threatening
your eyes will still be perfectly healthy the worst thing is that it may just be unpleasant
to look at it may be cosmetically unappealing now one possible treatment for corneal arcus
not really a treatment but maybe to help with the cosmetic site of corneal arcus and that is
to wear colored contact lenses the color contact can cover that white ring and that's definitely
something you can talk to your eye care provider about your eye doctor about maybe getting fitted
for color contacts just so it will be a little bit more cosmetically appealing if that's something
that's bugging you if you have any questions about corneal arcs corneal senilis corneal juvenilis
any of that make sure you leave it in the comments below i do my best to try and answer
all the questions that you guys have again i'm Dr. Neal Guymon, Dr. EyeGuy, focusing on you and
your eyes stay focused check out my other videos right there and i'll see you in the next video