Sharp pain in your eye? Eye doctors define the two categories of eye pain — orbital eye pain and ocular eye pain. Here are some common causes of eye pain – see if any of them apply to you:
- Abrasions (scratches) of the cornea: Corneal abrasions can happen from rubbing the eye when there’s a foreign body present, wearing contact lenses too long, being hit in the eye with an object, or if the eye comes in contact with something like a grain of sand. An abrasion of the cornea can feel like there’s something under the eyelid or in the eye.
- Chemical burns: Did you perhaps get a household chemical such as cleaning products, fertilizer, drain cleaner, nail polish remover, or vinegar in your eye? Rinse the eye with saline solution or allow water from the shower to irrigate the eye for at least 10 minutes, and then seek emergency help.
- Conjunctivitis: Also known as “pink eye,” conjunctivitis can be a bacterial, viral infection, or an allergic reaction that causes inflammation of the membrane that protects the white of the eye and lines the eyelid. The inflammation makes blood vessels in the membrane more visible, which makes the eyes look red or pink.
- Contact lens problems: Wearing contact lenses for too long, wearing them when the eyes are too dry, sleeping in lenses that are not appropriate for sleep, or rubbing the eyes with the lenses in can cause corneal abrasions.
- Dry eyes (including Sjogren’s syndrome): This condition occurs when the lacrimal glands don’t produce enough tears – or the right kind of tears – to keep the eyes properly lubricated. It can be temporary, due to dry environments or poor air quality, or it may be ongoing; it can also be a symptom of Sjogren’s Syndrome. When the eyes get too dry, corneal nerves become irritated, sensitive, and painful. Eye drops are often prescribed to help the eyes produce more tears, improve the quality of the tear and in turn improve symptoms, but can take several weeks to take full effect for some people.
- Glaucoma: The most common type of glaucoma, open-angle glaucoma, does not cause pain in most cases. But the sudden pressure change in acute-angle-closure glaucoma, sometimes called narrow-angle glaucoma, can cause severe pain, nausea and vomiting, redness, and blurred vision. This condition requires immediate attention.
- Headaches (including cluster, “ice pick,” or migraine): Pain that seems to radiate from the eye can be a symptom of severe headaches; the pain from a migraine, for instance, is often located behind one eye; the pain from cluster headaches can be excruciatingly occurring around one eye on one side of the head; and “ice pick” headaches often produce stabbing pains around the eye or temple region typically lasting seconds.
- Infection: Infections of the eye are often viral or bacterial and if not treated can progress in severity. An infection can be the result of an injury or sometimes from contact lenses that were not properly cleaned. Sinusitis, while not an infection of the eye, is an infection of the sinus cavities, that can cause a pressure sensation behind the eyes can make the entire area achy and tender. Untreated infections can worsen and spread to common areas leading to further complications.
- Inflammation: Inflammation can be a source of pain in different areas of the eye. A few of the more common types of inflammation that lead to pain include:
- Blepharitis involves the eyelids, especially at the lid margin where the eyelashes grow.
- Iritis involves the iris, the colored part of the eye.
- Keratitis involves the cornea, the front surface of your eye.
- Scleritis involves the white part of the eye and can be so painful that it wakes you at night.
- Map-dot fingerprint dystrophy: In this disorder, cellular abnormalities from beneath the cornea can resemble the topography of a map or the curves of a fingerprint. As a result, the layers of the cornea don’t adhere to each other as well, and the outermost layer can be sloughed off, even as a patient sleeps (and especially in REM sleep, where the eyes move rapidly). The areas where the surface layer has sloughed off expose nerves, which can cause searing pain. Over time, the condition can cause corneal erosions.
What should I do next?
Get checked out by a professional. If you have stabbing eye pain or are looking for a specialist for general eye health, experts in ophthalmology like Barnet Dulaney Perkins are able to help you. Contact your eye specialist.
Be prepared to answer the following questions about your eye pain:
- Description: Is it mild, intense, dull, sharp, throbbing, stabbing?
- Location: Does the pain feel like it’s behind your eye, in your eye, or on the surface? Is it in one or both eyes?
- Appearance: Is there any redness in or around your eye? Is your eye-watering? Any swelling?
- When: Does it hurt more at certain times of day – for instance, right when you wake up?
- Duration: How long does the pain last – 5 seconds, 5 minutes, or longer?
- Recurrence: How often do you feel pain? Once a week, once a day, many times a day?
In the meantime… follow these eye pain tips
- DO: Rinse your eye with saline drops or tap water. If an abrasive or chemical liquid comes in contact with the eyes, rinse for at least 10 minutes, and then call your eye doctor. If a foreign body sensation is present, don’t try to remove it by yourself. Let your eyes tear as much as they will as the tears may wash out the irritant.
- DON’T: Rub your eye. If there’s a foreign object in it or you have a corneal abrasion, you can make it worse.
- DON’T: Put any sort of bandage or patch over your eye. If you feel that you need to put something over the eye to keep you (or a child) from touching it, loosely tape the bottom of a paper cup over the eye.
- DON’T: Put any ointment or other medicine in your eye without a doctor’s instructions.
If you experience eye pain resulting from a traumatic event, a chemical burn, or a sudden loss of vision, you should seek emergency medical assistance right away.
Did you find this information valuable? Hopefully, this article helps you identify and relieve the pain in your eye. Let us know! We appreciate your feedback.
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