“What drop can I buy so this redness in my eye goes away?”
This is a question that we get sometimes from people that happen to pass by the optical. The truth is, there is no way of knowing unless we do an actual paid exam. Why? Because red eyes can be caused from all sorts of different conditions. Not even your personal physician can really know without performing additional testing like flourescien drops and highly magnified ophthalmoscopic evaluation using a slit lamp. Such testing equipment isn’t commonly found in your regular doctor’s office, so whenever you or your child have a red and/or painful eye and/or decreased vision, come see me, your eye doctor.
Cases in point:
- Case #1:
A distinguished gentlemen came in, miserable, because both eyes were painful, light sensitive, red, and very watery. His regular doctor told him that his eyes have a cold and to just wait it out. I saw him, evaluated his eyes with my equipment, and again concluded that his eyes did have a virus-caused condition, but rather than do nothing, he should try a prescription eye drop that will greatly enhance his comfort and decrease his redness.
Diagnosis: epidemic keratoconjunctivitis
Treatment is with a combination antibiotic and steroid eye drop. It doesn’t kill the viris causing the pink eye, but it helps your eyes be more comfortable and less watery and red. Patient tried it and was ecstatic. - Case #2:
This patient had a painful, light sensitive, watery, red eye. She is a contact lens wearer. On close examination with a slit lamp, I saw two cloudy circles on the cornea (which is supposed to be crystal clear). Using fluorescien dye and a blue light, the circles lit up green.
Diagnosis: marginal corneal infiltrates.
If your pediatrician gave your kid just an antibiotic drop, it wouldn’t help with this condition. It also requires a steroid eye drop. - Case #3:
Patient came in with painful, light sensitive, watery, red eye. Sound familiar? This time the cornea is clear (or there could have been white spots on the inside of the cornea), but the anterior chamber of the eye, viewable only under high magnification in a slit lamp, reveals small cells floating around.
Diagnosis: iritis
If your pediatrician treated this like a pink eye or even like a marginal corneal infiltrate, your poor child will unnecessarily suffer for a few days until you finally make it in to see me, your eye doctor. This condition requires a powerful steroid to calm the eye down. When these are recurrent, you need blood testing and possibly x-rays to determine the cause. - Case #4:
Patient came in with a painful, light sensitive, watery, red eye. Your pediatrician got burned the last two times, so let’s say they tried a steroid on this one. Ooops, it made it worse! When we look closer, the cornea has a characteristic pattern of grey/white lines with bulbs called dendrites. Your kid possibly has a history of cold soars and now she/he has one on the eye!
Diagnosis: herpes simplex keratitis
Anitibiotics are totally ineffective. Steroids make this condition MUCH worse. A frequently-installed and very expensive eye drop is the only way to treat this condition and minimize a permanent decrease in best possible vision.
Again, all these scenarios really require the expertise and equipment of me, your eye doctor, to help you quickly get relief and effectively handle your eye condition. And these are only a handful of possible problems your eye can have when it’s red. If your eye condition isn’t diagnosed promptly and treated effectively, you will be uncomfortable at best or have permanent vision loss in a worst case scenario.
I don’t have a beef with your primary care eye doctor or your pediatrician. They are great! But don’t put them in the position of having to deal with your red eye since most of them won’t have the equipment necessary nor the day-after-day experience to fully take care of your family’s eye conditions.
Also, you can see why you can’t just come up to me in in the optical and ask about what eye drop could help your redness because it totally depends on what is causing your redness! Your eyes are worth a paid exam.
