Eyelid flipping
Also called: Eyelid eversion · Lid eversion
Turning the upper eyelid inside out so the pink inner surface shows. Nobody has counted how many people can do it. Eye doctors do it to patients to look for grit.
How common
Can you do this?
How it works
Each eyelid contains a plate of dense tissue called the tarsus. It gives the lid its shape and stiffness. The plate in the upper lid is about 10 mm tall2. Above it, the lid is soft and folds easily.
Flipping the lid means folding the soft part over the top edge of the plate. You pull the lashes down and away from the eye, press on the skin just above the plate, and fold it up and over. The lid turns inside out. What shows is the conjunctiva, the thin pink membrane that lines the inside of the lid and covers the white of the eye13.
Eye doctors do this on purpose. Everting the lid shows the inner surface, where a speck of grit can lodge4. It is a routine step when someone comes in with a scratchy eye. People with tight or heavy upper lids find it harder. It is also a classic playground trick.
How common it is
Nobody has counted how many people can turn an upper eyelid inside out. No study has asked. The label rests on two things instead. Eye doctors evert the upper lid as a routine check for grit4. The fold itself depends on the tarsal plate, about 10 mm tall, with soft skin above it that folds over easily2. Loose lids flip. Tight lids resist. A simple survey that asked people to try would give the first real number.
Try it
Do not do this if you wear contact lenses, have an eye infection, or have had eye surgery.
- Wash your hands.
- Look down. Keep looking down the whole time.
- Take hold of the lashes of one upper lid between finger and thumb. Pull the lid gently down and away from the eye.
- With a clean cotton bud, press on the lid at the crease, about a centimetre above the lashes2.
- Fold the lashes up and over the cotton bud. The lid flips.
- To undo it, look up and blink. The lid drops back on its own.
Is it a problem?
No. Flipping the eyelid does not damage a healthy eye, and eye doctors do it routinely to check for something stuck under the lid4. It can feel a little uncomfortable, but it is not painful5. Being able to do it, or not, says nothing about eye health.
See a doctor if flipping the lid reveals:
- redness,
- swelling,
- an object that will not come loose,
- pain that continues after the lid is back in place.
Sources and further material
- archive.cehjournal.org How to evert the upper eyelid and remove a sub-tarsal foreign body Community Eye Health Journal 18(55). Step-by-step method eye workers use to evert the upper lid and remove grit from under it.
- PubMed Best technique for upper lid eversion Contact Lens & Anterior Eye 42(6):666-669. Compared six ways to evert the upper lid in 25 adults. Found it moderately uncomfortable at worst and not painful.
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