If you feel pain behind the eye, you should not panic. While the pain can be blinding and hard to deal with, the majority of treatments can be treated at home and be extremely useful. However, consulting a doctor or optician should always be the first step to take – especially if you don’t know what causes the pain.
While sometimes you might be dealing with an object in the eye, it could also be related to an injury or infection. Often, only one of your eyes is affected by the condition. However, if you are affected by conditions like infections, you might start experiencing pain in both eyes.
Most conditions can be solved easily with at-home treatments that involve antibiotics, eye drops, or antihistamines. However, to treat more severe conditions like a corneal abrasion and eye injury, you might require more drastic solutions. These involve undertaking surgery or wearing glasses.
In any case, the level of pain in your eye you are experiencing does not directly correlate to the condition you are dealing with. While a mild abrasion can put you through blinding pain, long-lasting diseases such as glaucoma might not hurt you at all.
Visiting a trusted optician or doctor can help you promptly identify the cause of the pain and choose one among the many solutions available to you.
What Are the Main Pain Sensations
Sometimes, a feeling of pain can feel like something you have not experienced before. However, identifying the kind of pain you are dealing with is the first step to finding a solution to the problem. Common types of eye pain include:
- Stabbing Pain in the Eye
- Dull Ache
- Something in the Eye
- Sensitivity to Light
- Blurred Vision
- Eye Pain Associated with Headache
Symptoms like swelling, redness, sensitivity to light, and blurred vision are often consequences of another underlying condition. These could include inflammation, abrasion, and infection.
Main Causes of Eye Pain
Objects in the Eye
Having the feeling that you have something in the eye is the most common type of pain sensation for many people. This type of eye ache can be tricky to cure because often the cause is not clear.
Of course, sometimes the feeling is caused by a grain of dust or an eyelash fallen “in” the eye. These types of objects can create a bothersome feeling that intensifies as you blink when the eyelid rubs the eye’s surface. Sensitivity to light, itchiness, and redness are common symptoms of this condition.
Removing the object or washing your eye can be an easy solution to resolve the situation.
However, if you have this feeling for a prolonged time frame, but you can’t see the object, the cause behind it is likely to be inflammation or irritation of the eye. Often, this can be located on the outer or frontal surface of the eye – the cornea.
Conjunctivitis is an eye condition that brings redness and swelling – commonly referred to as “pink eye.” If you have contracted conjunctivitis, it is normal to perceive an enhanced sensitivity in the eye, which starts to look pink or red. This inflammation or infection affects the membrane that lines the inner part of the eyelid and the outer surface of the eyeball. The main symptoms of conjunctivitis include reddened blood vessels and ‘crusty eyes’. Commonly, the eye feels bruised when dealing with this condition.
Other consequences of this condition include sensitivity to light and dry eyes.
In simple terms, corneal abrasion is a condition that manifests itself when the cornea becomes scratched. The seriousness of this problem entirely depends on how badly the cornea is scratched and what item caused the injury.
In most cases, corneal abrasions are not particularly severe. However, don’t underestimate how uncomfortable they can be! They can also cause pain in the eye, watery eyes, and sensitivity to light.
Some corneal scratches are very superficial and not serious. In this case, you might experience this discomfort for around 24 hours, before the cornea heals itself. However, sometimes, you might be dealing with more severe injuries or deeper scratches. If not addressed, these can lead to eye infections and even more threatening conditions like a corneal ulcer.
Corneal abrasions can be easily confused with foreign bodies in the eye – and it is often complicated to determine the seriousness of the condition. Therefore, it is recommendable to check with your optician if the condition does not resolve very quickly.
Contact Lenses Irritating the Eye
If you are wondering “why does my eye hurt at the end of the day,” look into your habits. Some types of pains you can experience at the end of a day at work is relatable to the type or contact lenses you often wear.
Not all contact lenses types are suitable for your eye. If you have experienced a type of pain in the eye socket or eyeball that is not going away with time, you should check with your optician immediately. Contact lens pain can be very worrisome as it might be an indication that you are developing an infection caused by the lenses.
If you have noticed an eyesore to touch or sore eyeball, you might be dealing with an eye injury. Eye pain caused by injury can be dangerous, especially if you are not sure regarding what could have caused the condition. Some common types of eye injury include:
- Corneal abrasion or scratched eye
- Penetrating objects in the eye
- Foreign object in the eye
- Chemical burn
- Swelling (bruising or black eye)
- Eye bleeding
- Inflammation of the iris
While this is not a condition affecting the eye directly, it does affect the eyelids. These can become red, itchy, and irritated. A common consequence of this inflammation is the formation of dandruff-like scales produced in the area surrounding the eyelashes. Skin conditions such as dandruff and rosacea that are noticeable in other areas of your skin are very common causes of this condition.
Dry eyes are often a consequence related to other conditions of the eye, including seasonal allergy, laser eye surgery, and conjunctivitis. This condition is particularly common and occurs when the eye is not able to produce enough tears to provide lubrication to the eye.
In this case, your eyes will feel uncomfortable, itchy, and can turn a little red. Often this condition is accompanied by a feeling of stinging or burning. Some environmental conditions such as air-conditioned rooms, looking at computer screens, and spending time in aeroplanes can worsen dry eyes.
A sty is a condition of the eye that generates a painful lump on the edge of the eyelid. This lump might look red similar to a pimple, swollen, or filled with pus. Usually, a sty appears on the outer surface of the eyelid but sometimes can happen on the inside. Throbbing eye, itchiness, and redness are command consequences of this condition, that tends to disappear by itself in a matter of days.
Headaches – Migraines
If you are looking for the most common cause of eye pain, headache can be your answer. Often eye pain and headache are associated and result in painful pressure behind the eye or pain behind the eye with movement.
Headaches and migraines can have several different causes. These range from environmental factors to a personal propensity to headaches. Individuals that are more sensitive to air quality, stress, and light can experience more severe symptoms.
What Can Cure Eye Pain
Depending on the condition that is affecting you, the most common solutions are the following ones.
Flushing an Object Out of the Eye
Using a clean drinking glass or eyecup, rest the rim of the object against the bone just below your eye socket. Then, let a slow stream of water through the eye affected. Alternatively, get into a shower and allow a stream of lukewarm water to drip from your forehead down. Keep your eyelid open for better results.
A corrective prescription can help you protect your eyes while enhancing your vision. This reduces the strain on the eye, which will feel more rested and less prone to medical conditions. Moreover, if you are working with chemicals and other hazardous substances, you should opt to wear goggles to protect your eyes from conditions like a chemical burn. Check designer glasses here:
Antibiotics can be the ideal solution for painful eye conditions deriving from infections and inflammations. However, you should always consult an optician or doctor before committing to this treatment.
Eye drops are an easy, accessible, and affordable at-home treatment that is efficient for specific conditions. If you experience redness, itchiness, and swelling due to dry eyes, eye drops should be your go-to solution. Other types of eye drops – such as antibiotic ones- are more suitable to treat more severe conditions.
If the pain in your eye derives from seasonal allergy, over the counter antihistamines allows you to restore the health of your eyes within days. Of course, they are only effective on conditions such as redness and itchiness deriving from allergy.
Surgery might be necessary to solve some of the most severe scenarios, such as acute or deep corneal abrasion. However, you should always visit an optician before thinking about surgery. Other conditions affecting the eye can be solved through this strategy.
Eye Pain Treatment
It is crucial to identify which one of the many eye pain causes you are dealing with before picking the correct treatment. However, when choosing how to treat eye pain, you should always consider it an emergency. This mindset allows you to address issues immediately. In turn, this choice can be a determining factor in solving the problem effectively.
Start by scheduling an appointment to a trusted, professional optician that can provide the optimal level of care. In your appointment, you will also find out the causes of the issues and the most appropriate solutions for you.
Treating your eye pain as an emergency can be essential in preventing further damage of the eye, limit eye pain, and avoid vision loss. While visiting an optician is the best choice regarding the seriousness of your condition, you should book an appointment, especially in the following scenarios:
- Eye injury
- Foreign body injury (pain appearing after completing an activity such as grinding metal or sawing wood)
- You are experiencing blurred vision
- You have noticed a discharge from the eye
- You have a history of conditions such as glaucoma
- The pain is severe
- You have just had laser eye surgery
If in doubt, you should always opt to see an optician. This simple choice can help you prevent more severe injuries and preserve your eye health.