

However, there may be more symptoms of enophthalmos, including:ĭouble vision or difficulty focusing because the eyes are out of alignment.ĭryness in the eyes because the eyeball has moved away from the tear ducts. Sometimes, it’s obvious that one or both eyes have sunken into their sockets. What are the most common sunken-eyes symptoms? If one of the eyes shifts backward (relative to the other eye), doctors call the condition enophthalmos. In humans, both eyes should align closely in their eye sockets. It’s the opposite of exophthalmos, or bulging eyes. What’s the definition of enophthalmos?Įnophthalmos (pronounced en-ahp-THAL-mus) combines the Greek prefix for “in” (en) with the Greek word for “the eye” (ophthalmos). Let’s go through some quick answers to these questions. What kinds of conditions cause sunken eyes? What are the primary symptoms of enophthalmos? When an eye sinks toward the back of the socket, a lot of questions arise: You don’t just ignore it and hope it goes away. Moreover, enophthalmos can cause double vision and may require surgery to fix. For instance, sunken eyes might be a symptom of cancer, HIV or a sinus defect. That’s why traumas from fights and car crashes are among the likely causes of enophthalmos.īear in mind, though, that a wide variety of things can shift the eye backward and produce enophthalmos. Enophthalmos, or sunken eyes, happens when an eyeball moves backward in the eye socket (also called the "bony orbit").įractures in the orbital bones often leave one eye noticeably sunken compared to the other.
