Tinted glasses aren’t just for protecting your eyes from the sun or accessorizing a fashionable look. For people with thyroid eye disease (TED), wearing a pair of tinted glasses can protect the eyes and help tone down symptoms. Alongside other TED treatments like topical lubricants, tinted glasses can help you manage TED symptoms without medications or surgery.

Thyroid eye disease, also called Graves’ ophthalmopathy, stems from the immune system causing inflammation in the eye muscles and fat behind the eyes. Although sunglasses don’t address the underlying inflammation, they can make life easier by protecting your eyes from damage that may make symptoms worse.

You probably already have a pair of sunglasses somewhere in your car or home. If you don’t, they may be worth the investment for three reasons.

1. They Reduce Light Sensitivity

The main reason why anyone wears sunglasses is to shield their eyes from the harsh light of the sun, which can permanently damage your eyes. Nearly half of people with TED experience photophobia (sensitivity to light), especially to ultraviolet (UV) light from the sun.

How TED Causes Light Sensitivity

Light sensitivity in TED is typically related to the associated dry eye, which is the most common cause of photophobia.

If you have TED, your eyes might be especially dry and light sensitive because the inflammation has caused eyelid retraction, or shortened eyelids due to scarring, along with bulging and inflamed eyes. Often a temporary symptom, eyelid retraction makes it hard to blink and lubricate your eyes. You may also have trouble closing your eyes completely at night while you sleep, which further dries them out. As a result, your eyes become more sensitive to light.

What Light Sensitivity Feels Like

Light sensitivity can cause your eyes to feel uncomfortable or painful when you’re in bright light. When your eyes are sensitive to light, you might squint or blink a lot in an attempt to keep light from hitting them. The sensitivity can be so intense that you avoid going outside in daylight.

Light sensitivity can occur alongside other dry eye symptoms, such as feeling like there’s grit or sand in your eye or excessive eye watering.

How Tinted Glasses Can Help

Sunglasses or tinted glasses can reduce the amount of light that gets into your eyes, which may make it easier to keep your eyes open and reduce eye pain associated with light sensitivity.

2. They Can Protect You From Dry Eye

Beyond helping with light sensitivity, tinted glasses can also shield your eyes from wind and other triggers that can make dry eye worse. Wind, smoke, dust, and air pollution can all get into your eyes and trigger dry eye symptoms. This is especially true when TED prevents you from fully closing your eyes.

How TED Causes Dry Eyes

TED can cause your eyes to be constantly dry and irritated because the underlying inflammation can make your eyes bulge or protrude. Combined with eyelid retraction from scarring in your eyelid muscles, bulging eyes make it hard to fully close your eyes when you blink or sleep.

Even if your eyes almost close but the lids don’t quite touch, the small gap between your eyelids can cause your eyes to dry out very quickly, which leads to dry eye symptoms.

What Dry Eye Feels Like

Dry eyes can make it feel like you have something stuck in your eye. Because your eyes don’t get enough lubrication, the cornea (the protective outer layer of the front of the eye) is easily scratched and irritated by triggers in your environment. Usually, the tear layers help keep these irritants out of your eyes.

In people with TED, dry eyes can cause:

• Light sensitivity
• Blurry vision
• Stinging or burning
• Mucus coming out of the eye
• Eye watering
• Gritty or scratchy sensations

Eye watering might sound surprising as a symptom of a condition associated with dryness. Watery eyes happen because of a process known as reflex tearing. When the eyes become irritated, the main tear gland becomes stimulated to overproduce tears, which results in watering.

How Tinted Glasses Can Help

Tinted glasses or sunglasses can help keep air and irritants out of your eyes so they don’t cause damage to the cornea. This can help control some dry eye symptoms, though lubricating eye drops (artificial tears) can help even more.

3. They Cover Bulging Eyes

Proptosis (bulging eyes) in TED can change how you look. If bulging eyes affect your self-confidence, you might be motivated to use tinted glasses to reduce their impact on your appearance.

How TED Causes Bulging Eyes

Thyroid eye disease may cause fluid to accumulate in the fat and muscle behind your eyes. Coupled with inflammation and eyelid retraction, this can cause your eyes to protrude further out of their sockets than they normally do.

It’s possible for your eyes to stop bulging on their own. But, in the meantime, this change to your appearance might impact your quality of life.

What Bulging Eyes Look Like

Bulging eyes in TED can make it look like your eyes are always open as wide as they can be, which can make you appear surprised or startled all the time.

TED can also make your eyes look red and give you puffy eyelids, which can highlight your eyes’ bulging appearance. The fluid accumulation can make it look like you have large bags under your eyes. Some people feel like the visible eye symptoms of TED make them look older.

How Tinted Glasses Can Help

Tinted glasses are harder for others to see through than typical glasses, so people can’t see your eyes as well. Darker lenses don’t necessarily offer more sun protection than lighter lenses, but if covering your bulging eyes is your main concern, darker and larger lenses can do the trick.

Tips for Choosing Tinted Glasses for TED

Not all tinted glasses are alike, and different sunglass features can make a pair more or less beneficial for your TED symptoms. Consider these features while shopping around for tinted glasses:

• Consider wraparound lenses — Glasses with a wraparound design offer more protection from light and wind. Others may leave too much open space around the sides.
• Choose larger lenses — If you’re not interested in wraparound lenses but still want more protection, larger lenses can also help minimize how much wind and sunlight hits your eyes.
• Look for UV protection — Not all tinted glasses protect your eyes from the sun’s harsh UV rays. Check the tag or label for wording like “100 percent UV protection” or “up to 400-nanometer UV protection.”
• Choose polarized lenses — Polarized lenses don’t improve UV protection, but they help minimize the glare bouncing off reflective surfaces like water or glass. They might help you see better if your eyes are sensitive to light.
• Try out different tinted lenses — Different lenses filter color and light in different ways. It might help to experiment with a few options to find a pair that helps with your light sensitivity without reducing your vision too much. Talk to your eye doctor or ophthalmologist for recommendations.

Some people get a little more creative while looking for tinted glasses for TED. A member of TEDhealthteam said, “Wearing ski goggles helps with dry eyes for me.” Ski goggles are typically tinted and offer more coverage than sunglasses for dry or sensitive eyes.

Join the Conversation

On TEDhealthteam, people share their experiences with thyroid eye disease, get advice, and find support from others who understand.

Do you use tinted glasses for TED? Let others know in the comments below.