What is Pink Eye?

Pink eye

Pink eye is also known as conjunctivitis, is an infectious and common eye condition that affects about 2 million people annually. If you or your child have pinkish-red, itchy, and crusty eyes, call an optometrist or make an appointment immediately.

Pink Eye
Photo Credit: Medical News Today

Pink eye occurs when a thin membrane of tissue called the conjunctiva is infected. This is what causes the small blood vessels in the conjunctiva to be more visible. When these small blood vessels are inflamed, the whites of your eyes appear reddish or pink.

What Causes Pink Eye?

Diagramatic representation of Pink eye (Conjunctivitis)
Photo Credit: Eye doctors in NYC

Pink eye is extremely contagious caused by a viral or bacterial infection. If you develop symptoms from an upper respiratory infection like sneezing, coughing, or a sore throat, it can be due to viral conjunctivitis.

Environmental irritants like cosmetics, smog, and chlorine can also cause inflammation.

If you don’t wash your hands before touching your eyes, the infection spreads quickly.

What Cures Pink Eye The fastest?

If you have bacterial pink eye, antibiotic eye drops can shorten the duration.

Soothe your eyes to treat the affected eye without infecting the other.

Apply lubricating eye drops, to minimize irritation.

Take pain relievers like ibuprofen or acetaminophen so your body keeps fighting whatever is causing your pink eye.

Don’t share what touches your eyes with others.

Wash your hands after you touch your eyes.

Visit your doctor if you have a really severe case that requires medical attention.

When to see a doctor?

Immediately consult an eye doctor if you have the following symptoms:

If your symptoms are getting worse instead of better.

If you experience increased sensitivity to all light.

If you notice significant amounts of mucus or pus coming out of your eyes.

Infected eye: Pus and mucus formation
Photo Credit: Men's Health

Save your eyes from discomfort and getting damage, by getting your eyes checked with your doctor first.

Comments

Eye Movement Dysfunction

The rotational movements of intorsion and extorsion are necessary to keep a viewed object stable and positioned on the appropriate part of the retina as the head is tilted from side to side. To illustrate imagine standing upright and looking at an arrow that is pointing superiorly. Now tilt your head 45 degrees to the right, does the arrow move with your head? Now point at a 45 degree angle, hopefully not. Because of intorsion and extortion the arrow should still appear to be pointing superiorly. In this case the right eye has been intowarded and the left eye has been equivalently extorted so that the image falls on the same part of the retina as before the head tilt. Obviously our eye has a limited range of intorsion and extorsion. They cannot spin completely around within the orbit. And if we were to stand on our head the arrow would appear to change direction and appear to point inferiorly. Now, lets look at the movements produced by each of the extra oculum muscles. Medial and...

Vision Therapy Exercise for Home

In this blog I am going to share vision therapy exercises which anyone can do easily at home. So let's get started.. Before performing this exercises you should have a comprehensive binocular vision exam to find any vision issues that you might have. It is also recommended to perform these exercises with a licensed optometrist about licensed therapists. Exercising your eyes is a lot like exercising your other muscles. Our eyes and our brain can be trained to get stronger performing eye exercises over a period of time. Focusing exercise which will train our eyes focusing ability to help us focus more efficiently for longer periods of time while reading a book or working on the computer. Equipments needed for the exercise: Any of the three objects will work: Detailed sticker on a stick. Pencil with small writing on it. Reading material with small print. Eye patch. Distance glasses (If glasses are normally worn). Steps for Set Up: Wear an eye patch over one eye or close one eye...

What does 20/20 vision actually mean?

What does it mean when you have got 20/20 Vision? 20/20 Vision is a term coined from an in office test to determine visual acuity or clarity of vision. If we're getting technical, the term 2020 actually refers to the size of a letter, a person can read when they are 20 feet away. When you walk into the exam room, and you see the Big E on the top of the chart, that's a 2200 letter. The next line down is 2100 and so on and so forth until you get to that small 2020 line, which is actually optimal vision that we check for in the exam. When patients have trouble seeing smaller letters on the eye chart, glasses and contacts can be prescribed to correct vision to a point where the 2020 line becomes focused. Measuring visual acuity is important, and is used as a way for your eye doctor to standardize how you're seeing over time. It can be used as a comparison tool from exam date to exam date. For example, if you saw 2020 last year, and you're seeing the 2030 ...

Eye Supervision Academy

Search This Blog