Corneal Abrasion - A Common Eye Problem That Can Be Easily Treated

By Brent McNutt 

 

    

 

Corneal abrasion is a superficial scratch in the outer lens of the eye. It is usually caused by improper wearing of contact lenses or by particles that get lodged in the eye. A scratched cornea can be painful and alarming. Good thing is that the eyes are one of the quickest healers in the body and scratched corneas are easy to treat. Some of the symptoms of corneal abrasions include pain, redness, sensitivity to light, blurred vision, excessive tears, the feeling that there is an object or particle in the eye, and possible swelling of the eye.

Natural healing process
A scratch in the cornea can heal completely within 24 to 48 hours, depending on the severity, leaving no permanent damage when healed. During this time, the cells will reconnect the undamaged layers and renew the scratched part of the cornea. If you feel like you scratched your cornea, do not rub your eyes! It will only worsen the abrasion. Instead, flush your eyes with water to get rid of the object or particle that scratched your eye. Use a cold compress over your eye to keep it from swelling and lessen the pain. Keep your eyes closed and let it rest. If you cannot wait too long and the pain or discomfort is unbearable, you should contact an eye doctor in urbane scrubs to see if you need treatment.

Seeing an eye doctor
To ease the pain, anesthetic eye drops are typically used during examination and to prevent infection, an eye doctor will usually recommend antibiotic eye drops. After the treatment, the doctor will cover your eye with a tight eye patch to prevent your eyelid from moving. You will have to wear the eye patch for at least 24 hours so that the healing process will not be disturbed and so that it repairs quickly and smoothly.

What to avoid
Those who wear contact lenses should not wear it for the whole period of the treatment and healing period because it will only slow down the healing process. Also, the medication can cloud or stain soft lenses, thereby damaging it. Superficial cornea abrasions do not cause permanent blindness or loss of vision but it may blur your vision temporarily. Once your eye heals, it may take a few weeks before your clear vision returns (if you had clear vision before the abrasion). During this time, it is advised that you refrain from rubbing your eyes. This will slow down the healing process or even aggravate the abrasion.

Recurrence
In some instances, a corneal abrasion can spontaneously recur long after it has healed, usually occurring when you wake up in the morning. This happens when an area of the eye's epithelium failed to reconnect to the deeper layers of the cornea. When this happens, it is best to go to the eye doctor so that a special instrument can be used to form better connections between the layers of the cornea. The treatment will be similar to the one that was administered in the original abrasion. You can also ask your doctor about lubricants or ointments that you can use to prevent recurrent abrasions.

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What Causes Double Vision?

By Rachel Berret

 

    

Have you ever had the experience when you see things in double? It is as if there are two of every single thing that you see. Sometimes, it would happen for only a few hours. But it can also last for entire days and can happen frequently. If this happens often, maybe you should already try to consult an eye doctor because you may already be suffering from a condition called diplopia or commonly called "double vision".

Your eyes do work independently, one eye perceiving an image in a totally different way that the other does. But as the neurons get to your brain, the images are reconciled in that you would be made to interpret and "see" only one object. Diplopia or double vision happens when this particular function of your brain becomes distracted.

Double vision can be caused by a number of eye disorders. One primary cause is cornea problems. When your cornea is infected or is severely scarred, your vision can be unequal. It can also progress to dryness of the cornea, which is a common cause of double vision.

Having cataracts can also cause diplopia. Cataracts usually affect your lens, which perceive the images that your eyes gather. Due to the presence of cataracts, which may either be in one or in both eyes, the images can be quite distorted and you may see two objects instead of one.

Problems with your eye muscles can also be considered as causes of double vision. If the muscles that control your eyes are relatively weak, they tend to distort the images that you see. Sometimes, when the muscles of one eye are weaker than the other, the image you see can be distorted at the surface level. It is likely that the images depicted by that eyes would not reconcile with the clearer depiction of the eye with a stronger set of muscles.

Finally, problems with your nerves and your brain can cause double vision. Tumors, multiple sclerosis, strokes and aneurysms can distort the travel of messages from your eyes to your brain. It would be difficult for your brain to reconcile the images perceived by your eyes and would cause you to see double.

Diplopia can happen to anybody. This is why it is important that you take care of your eyes to ensure that they will not be affected by any condition that would distort the images they perceive.

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