Three months of eye spasms/twitches due to laser treatment...

[ChristianZaney]

On January 4 2011 I had an IPL laser treatment done under my eyes to help reduce dark circles, the skin is very thin due to damage from sun exposure.  The next day, my left eye started twitching on the bottom corner lid of the eye near the nose.  I ignored it and attributed it to stress, but after a month with no let up I called my dermatologist and was assured these non ablative lasers cannot penetrate deeply enough to cause any nerve damage.  So I let it go.  The condition has become worse, and now after three months of this, it has become obvious that this laser procedure did some kind of nerve damage.  The spasms are quite intense and only let up about 4 hours a day, when I close my eyes I can feel the muscle contracting.  When I put hot water on my face, BOTH eyes go crazy, twitch and feel heavy for about five minutes.  I remember when I had a toothache due to a nerve the same sensation would happen when drinking hot coffee.

I was told nerves take a long to heal (months and years), I have an appointment with a neuro-optho in six weeks and I'm sure he can help me with these questions, but in the mean time why is my brain sending a signal to the nerve to constantly contract this muscle under my eye?  How can I stop this as it's driving me crazy, I would really like to avoid botox or surgery. If the damage was really bad, I wouldn't feel anything, correct?  the muscle and the nerve wouldn't do a thing so something is going wacky.  My vision is 20/20 but it's a nuisance that is driving me nuts, any insight to how nerves/muscles heal etc would help relieve some of the stress, thanks!

[ChristianZaney]

Thank you Dr. Vosoghi, I guess it is possible it's a total coincidence that the eye spasms started four days after I received the IPL treatment directly under my eyes.  I have an appointment with a neuro-opthomologist, are you suggesting canceling that appointment and making one instead with a oculoplastic specialist?  Also would an MRI or CT of the eye area show any specific nerve damage so I could try to surmise whether the IPL did any harm?  Can these nerves under the eye heal themselves over time, it's been 10 weeks so perhaps I should wait it out?  Cheers.

[Houman Vosoghi, MD]

I've never heard of the skin lasers causing such a thing but I guess anything is possible.  I would consider seeing an oculoplastic specialist also as the eyelid is their area of expertise.  Unfortunately, there are no good answers to your questions.  We still don't understand why peripheral nerves sometimes misbehave.

HV