Basic Eye Anatomy

Hello! My name is Paula and I am the office manager at Potthoff Eye Care & Surgery in Traverse City, Michigan. I come from a background in endocrinology and podiatry, so I am familiar with the endocrine system and feet but didn’t know much about eyes. They may be small but they sure are complex and turns out, quite interesting! Let me share with you, from someone new to ophthalmology (pronounced: of-thuhl-mol-uh-gee), as I educate myself about the anatomy of the eyes and diseases that affect them.

I’ve always been one to use correct vocabulary but I have to admit, when it came to eyes, I used words like “the white part”, “the colored part”,or “eyeball”.  Well, it’s time for me to brush up on my ophthalmology terminology, so I’m starting with the very basics.

The first thing I learned is that the eye is sometimes called the globe, and it sits in a socket called the orbit. It has six specialized extraocular muscles that are attached to each eye and the bones of the orbits. They help the eye rotate and move up, down, left, and right. Here’s a great image I found to help visualize these muscles:

Here is a helpful list of parts of the eye and easy definitions:

Sclera: white part of the eye (not just known as the part of the eye that gets bloodshot and gives us away if we had a rough night!)

Conjunctiva: clear-ish membrane covering the sclera & inside of the eyelids

Lacrimal system: makes & drains tears (into the nose!)

Iris: colored part of the eye

Pupil: black hole in the iris that opens and closes to let more or less light into the eye (also a part of the eye known for giving us away if we may have “overindulged”)

Cornea: transparent tissue at the front of the eye that is in front of the pupil and iris, helps to bend and focus light

Crystalline lens: behind the iris, about the size of an M&M, and like the cornea helps focus rays of light on the retina; when the lens gets cloudy it becomes a cataract!

Vitreous: jelly-like substance behind the lens that helps the eyeball keep it’s firm, round shape (jelly-like substance? ewwwww, but we certainly don’t want a deflated eye do we?!?)

Retina: thin tissue lining the inside of the back of the eye containing nerve cells that are sensitive to light (sunglasses anyone?), the tissue that helps us turn light into vision! The retina is where macular degeneration happens.

Optic nerve: connects the retina to the brain, so that the light signals from nerve cells can travel to the brain and we can perceive vision! This is what gets damaged in glaucoma.

Since I’ve started working with Dr. Potthoff I have already gotten to see some amazing things inside patient’s eyes right here in Traverse City! I will share what I see from my perspective as I watch and learn. There’s so much more to our vision than what meets the eye! Stay tuned!