On average, many patients admit that the first thing they notice about a person when they first meet them is their eye color. An alluring pair of eyes can make a lasting impression, but the most memorable are most likely the ones that are not the same.
The scientific term that refers to mismatched eye colors is heterochromia. Typically, a vet sees heterochromia in cats and dogs, but it happens in only three out of every five hundred people. Also, the eye doctors tell us that there are a few various causes and types of heterochromia.
What Are The Different Types Of Heterochromia?
Well-known examples of heterochromia are Alice Eve and Josh Henderson, who each have one green eye and one blue eye. Both of them have completely mismatched irises, regularly called complete heterochromia or heterochromia iridium. Additionally, it’s possible to have a patch of different color in one iris, which is called segmental heterochromia or heterochromia iridis. One good example of a person with this condition is Henry Cavill since his eyes are blue but he has a patch of brown in his left iris.
More frequent than either of these types is central heterochromia, which means the irises match each other, however, there’s a ring of a different color surrounding the pupils. For instance, Olivia Wilde has blue eyes with rings of brown around the center. It may not stick out the same way as the asymmetrical types of heterochromia but the impact is very extraordinary.
What Causes Heterochromia?
In many occurrences, heterochromia is a harmless genetic mutation that influences the way pigment forms in a person’s irises, but it can also come about after an injury or a disease later in life. For instance, Mila Kunis has heterochromia after a prolonged inflammation in one of her irises, but the most famous instance was David Bowie.
When Bowie was fifteen years old, he got into a fistfight with a good friend over a girl they both liked. Bowie got a punch to his left eye which permanently paralyzed the iris, resulting in anisocoria, or uneven pupils, for his entire life. Everyone thought his eye were different colors, but they weren’t. They just seemed different since the left eye was fully dilated while the right eye wasn’t.
What Does Folklore Say About Heterochromia?
Many different cultures have had different beliefs and traditions revolving around contrasting eyes. For instance, Eastern European pagans believed mismatched eyes were witch eyes, while many Native American cultures thought they were ghost eyes that gave the person the ability to see into heaven and earth. Nowadays, when we see a person with heterochromia we just think they have amazing and unique eyes.
Visit Excel Laser Vision Institute If Your Eyes Match, Or Not!
It’s probably very unlikely you will get heterochromia because of injury or disease if you weren’t born with it, but it is always a good idea to bring any changes you notice about your eyesight to our eye care team.
