Dilated Eyes

[STACY81]

Last fall I took my 16 year old to the eye doctor, while there dr. noticed his eyes were dilated. At the time, he was on medication and I just figured it was from that. Last night I was looking at his eyes and noticed how big his pupils were(seemed dilated) they are like this all the time. So then I went to look at my 8 year old and his were the same way. Is there some medical explanation for this? I always thought if your pupils were dilated it was from head trauma, drugs, etc. Could this be some kind of abnormality or is this normal?  

[John C Hagan III, MD, FACS]

Pupil size (like foot size, body weight and height) varies from person to person and also by age. Pupils in an infant are pin-point. They get larger and are the largest in teenagers and young adults then slowly get smaller and in very old (85+) are very small.

As long as the pupils are the same size, constrict to light and with focus and vision is good, no double vision, no droopy eyelid then its "normal"

I have a cousin that has the largest pupils I've ever seen. He always looks like something scared him terrible. But that's just the way it is.

Long ago women in Spain put the juice of plants in their eyes to dilate them as a sign of beauty. These juices evolved into the modern day dilation drops and the old name for the was "bella donna alkaloids" (beautiful lady = bella donna).

JCH III MD