Eye Care Information & Discounts

How can I manage Eye Problems?

Infections

If you have or think you have contracted an eye infection, seek immediate medical attention. Attempting to self-diagnosis an eye infection can result in incorrect eye care and increased severity or duration of the symptoms. However, there are a variety of treatments in medical professional may prescribe if he believes that you have an eye infection. Often an eye infection is caused by a bacterium.  If this is the case your doctor may prescribe an antibiotic eye medicine to be administered via eye dropper or he may suggest various types of compresses. In extreme cases, you may also be prescribed an oral antibiotic as an eye Rx.

Viruses

Viral infections of the eye are sometimes more difficult to treat.  In many cases, they resolve on their own given enough time. However, if the infection does not seem to be disappearing your doctor may prescribe medication. Your eye prescription in this case is likely to be an antiviral medication, generally administered via eye droplets. When swelling is especially severe and further complications may arise, your prescription eye care may include a regiment of steroidal eye drops as well. 

What are the different types of medications for eye infections?

Eye Droplets

Eye droplets are eye drugs that are applied directly to the eyeball. The two primary forms in which they come are as a solution or as a suspension. If your eye medicine comes as a suspension, make sure to shake the bottle before each use. The medication may settle at the bottom of the bottle, meaning your eye prescription medication will not have full power without being shaken. If the eye drops are a solution, then you shouldn’t need to shake them.

In either case, not all eye drops work instantly.  Those that are meant to cure scratchy or dry eyes can often show immediate results. However, those eye prescription medications that are meant to treat more serious problems often take hours or days to reach their full affect. If you are taking multiple types of eye drops, be sure to ask your doctor how long you should wait between each dose.

Oral Medication

Most afflictions of the eye can be treated using standard antibiotics or antiviral medication. In rare cases, this medication must be ingested orally. Patients with glaucoma, for example, are often given beta blockers to lower their blood pressure and reduce the stress on their eye. Many eye medicines that are taken orally have substantially more side effects than those eye prescriptions administered via eye drops.

The benefit of these stronger prescription eye drugs is that they function to make your body adjusts to better protect its own eyes. By manipulating hormones and blood pressure, many of these eye Rx are able to encourage your own eyes to make more tears or relieve unneeded pressure. 

What are the symptoms of an eye condition?

The most common symptoms of eye problems are redness, itchiness, or swelling around the eye socket.  However, because these problems involve the eye they can sometimes manifest in vision difficulty.  Blurred vision either at near or far distances can be a sign of the natural aging process or it can be a sign of a problem.  Because of this ambiguity, a more reliable symptom to watch for is unusual sight.  Namely, bright lights or changes in the perception of color can signify a deeper problem.  The appearance of gaps in perceptions such as black spots, an absence or disruption of depth perception, or interference with one’s peripheral vision are all indicative of the disease or other problem of the eye.

Because the eye is a muscle, it can experience difficulty in movement similar to any other muscle of the body.  Though spasms and twitches of the eyelid are not uncommon, uncontrollable movement of the eyeball is much rarer and could be symptomatic of a larger problem.  If you notice that your eyes are not moving in unison, or if you cannot control you direction of sight contact your doctor.