Getting a red eye infection can be such a pain that often sets to disrupt your day-to-day routine. It isn’t just having the ‘I am sick’ look that makes the bloodshot eye annoying but the troublesome red eye infection symptoms that come as a package deal.
Luckily there are a few remedies and prevention methods you can try on, especially if you find yourself frequently having a red eye infection. Hold up though, let’s educate ourselves with what is a red eye infection, the common causes, the symptoms and best treatment to stop it from bugging you. Go on, continue reading!
What is Red Eye Infection & Causes of It?
If you notice the whites of your eyes or also known as the conjunctiva has turned red, that’s your cue to be aware that you’ve probably caught a red eye infection. Due to inflammation of blood vessels in the eyes, the eyes become enlarged with irritation. So what causes red eye infection in the first place? Various factors
Amongst many, here are a few common reasons for a red eye infection you should be wary of:
- Allergies (dust, pollen, pet fur)
- Conjunctivitis
- Dry Eyes
- Blepharitis
- Wearing contact lenses for too long
- Computer vision syndrome
- Eyelid stye
Red Eyes Symptoms
Of course, the most obvious symptom of a red eye infection is the redness part of it. However, there are other symptoms that you should keep aware of such as throbbing eye pain, itchiness, teary eyes, sore or swollen eyes, and blurry or disoriented vision.
While most times a red eye infection and the symptoms can be treated with home remedies and over-the-counter medicines, remember to head over to an ophthalmologist if the symptoms persist more than a week or other symptoms such as below develop:
- (yellow, brownish, greenish) mucus crust around the eyes
- Extreme/ unusual sensitivity to light
- Pain in eye movement
- fever/nausea
Red Eyes Treatment & Prevention
The good news is mild red eyes can be treated at home, with patience and constant care. With a wide range of remedies available, we’ve compiled a list of convenient red eye infection’s treatments for you to restore your eyes’ health:
Cold Compression / Warm Compression
They work wonders, either cold or warm compression when it comes to treating inflammation for red eyes. For warm compression, use a clean towel and soak it in warm water (not hot, but warm – we don’t wanna burn our eyes!) and lay it over your eyes closed for about 10 minutes. The same method applies to cold compression where you use cold water instead. Cold compression also eases the itchiness that comes along with the inflammation. An old trick is to just use cool cucumber slices as a way for cold compression.
Stay Away from Air-Conditioners/ Heating Devices
One of the ways you could worsen a red eye infection is by being around anything that dries up your eyes. This includes air-conditioners or any heating devices for that matter as they also easily spread any form of allergens right up your way. So if you are prone to allergies, high time to keep this in mind at all times.
OTC Medicines
Over-the-counter drugs may be helpful especially if you have allergies that lead to red eye infection. To treat your red eyes symptoms, you have to first attend to your allergies and getting antihistamines can be your best shot.
Artificial tears
This is one of the quickest, simplest and safest ways to tackle red eye infection and its symptoms. While there are various artificial tears on the market, each type such as lubricating eye drops, allergy eye drops and anti-redness drops serves different purposes hence it is important to know the cause of your red eye or eye irritation before grabbing a bottle of artificial tears.
Let’s Talk Prevention!
Prevention is always better than cure, we all know that. Some of the things you could do to avoid catching a red eye are quite easy to apply in your routine. Firstly, remember to never touch your eyes without washing your hands and always use clean towels for your face. With our day-to-day activities, we tend to forget that
our hands are used everywhere and anywhere, and it is unhygienic to later put them onto our eyes where dirt particles easily transfer into our eyes.
Now, if allergies have been the toxic friend in your life, it goes without saying how crucial it is to avoid irritants such as dust, pollen, mould and pet hairs given that is usually the pathway to getting a red eye infection.
We can’t deny just how much digital time has become a large part of our daily lives. So straining your eyes can be an additional cause of eye irritation and redness especially when you’ve not taken your eyes off the screen for a long period. The trick here is to practice the 20/20/20 rule, whereby for every 20 minutes of screen time, you look 20 feet away for 20 seconds. This gives your eyes a little break that it needs from the blue light and allows your eyesight to regain its focus.
Contacts can be convenient and comfortable but don’t forget they aren’t meant to be worn for too long. Hence, avoid overusing them by wearing your contact lenses longer than the time recommended. You not only save your eyes from dryness and redness as an effect of strains, but you’d also prevent the possibility of having a red eye infection.
Last but not least, clean sheets are not only important for your hair and skin but also for your eyes. As we see, it concerns your overall health, thus keeping it a habit to change and clean your bedding as frequently as every two weeks benefits you more than you’d realise.
Get a headstart on your eye care by getting an appointment with us at VISTA Eye Specialist today!
