A mum of two has revealed that she that she almost went blind after failing to remove her mascara properly for 25 years... That's right, almost THREE DECADES - as you can imagine, things got pretty grim.
WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT
Theresa Lynch, 50, began suffering from pain, discharge and an uncomfortable sensation behind her eyelids.
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When eye drops and lubricating gels failed to work their magic, she sought medical advice - only for doctors to discover hard, calcified lumps known as concretions buried under her eyelids.
Lynch - who is originally from Maryland in the US but now lives in Sydney, Australia - had to undergo a 90-minute procedure under general anaesthetic to remove the strange lumps and save her sight.
Lynch and her doctor, Dr Dana Robaei, have released the shocking photos of the eyelids in an attempt to warn others about the dangers of leaving makeup on overnight.
"[The lumps] were embedded so deep that particles were building up on top of each other," Theresa said.
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"I was so uncomfortable. My eyelids were swollen and heavy because I left it for so long.
"When Dr Robaei pulled my eyelid back, she said: 'Oh my God... In my whole career I have seen anything this'.
"She could see the whites of my eyes were glassy and bloodshot."
Theresa was so shocked by what her doctor found that she was worried she'd caused permanent damage to her eyes.
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"I had fallen into a bad habit of wearing a lot of makeup and not washing it off. I should never have let it get this far," Theresa continued.
"It's so important to properly take your makeup off every single night. You can't miss a single day."
Robaei, who is a Consultant Ophthalmologist at Forest Eye Surgery, said she had never seen anything like it - and later published a study on Lynch's case to spread the word about the hidden dangers in everyday beauty products.
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Robaei said: "Every time Theresa was blinking these bumps were rubbing on the surface of the eye and they pose a risk to her vision.
"If the scratch on the surface of the eye got infected, there is a risk this could be a potentially blinding but that would be rare.
"It was certainly disabling. She has suffered permanent scarring on her eyelid and the surface of her cornea.
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"The symptoms are like somebody throwing a handful of sand in your eye, it's constantly irritating."
Robaei added: "Not many women are treating the removal of their mascara seriously... You must be meticulous.
"This was an amazing case, I'd never seen anything like it. But this is a risk not many people are aware of."
Featured Image Credit: StoryTrenderTopics: World News, Interesting, Weird, Australia