Red eyes is condition known as conjunctivitis or bloodshot eyes. There are times where it can be severe and associated with other signs such as itchiness, pain and burning sensation.
What Causes Red Eye
There are many underlying conditions that can result to red eye and some may be minor while others may be serious enough to call for medical intervention.
Symptoms associated with red eye
There are a number of other signs you may watch out for in case you have red eyes. Visit your medical provider immediately if your red eye condition is associated with the following:
- Painful red eye with itchiness
- Interfered vision
- Sensitiveness to light
- Fever and headache
- If your red eye is due to injury particularly if something pierced it
- A feeling of being sick
- Swelling and inflammation
Bloodshot Eyes Meaning
Bloodshot eyes are simply another term used to mean red eyes. The condition may be as a result of small blood vessels that are formed on the surface of the eye known as the sclera are congested with blood hence becoming enlarged.
This usually happens due to poor supply of oxygen to the cornea and all other tissues the cover your eye. In most cases, bloodshot eyes are not a cause of concern but in case the condition is associated with other serious symptoms that we have talked about above, you should seek medical help.
This condition may vary in some cases with a bright red or uniformly dense bloody area that develop on your sclera due to the small amount of bleeding from eye capillaries.
You may realize this bloody blotch mostly when you wake up in the morning. Usually, the condition is not painful but it may make you uncomfortable due to its awful look. However, it will clear after few days without your intervention. Often, the appearance of bloody blotch in your eyes can also be referred to as subconjunctival hemorrhage.
Usually, the level at which your red eye is does not necessarily mean or show how severe your condition is, but instead the overall state of your health. Bloodshot eyes are often a symptom involved with other symptoms to give you a visible sign that you may be suffering from some under your knowledge. The seriousness of the symptoms will indicate a severe underlying condition. Bloodshot eye may be associated with other symptoms such as:
- Pain and itchiness
- Swelling due to inflammation
- Head ache and neck pain
- Dryness of eyes
- Stomach ache and bloating pain
- Sneezing, coughing and sniffing
- Swollen feet and hands
- Mucus and pus discharge
Red Eye Causes
There are a number of issues that may cause red eye. While red eye is a condition that can affect you any time of the day, you may easily get it by exposure to some activities that make you prone to the condition. The effects that result from red eye may be seen some time after you have been affected by the condition that causes it. Redness of your eyes can signal the presence of a serious condition in your body such as uveitis and glaucoma. If this condition persists, you should seek the help of your doctor immediately.
Reasons for a red eye include the following:
- Conjunctivitis ( pink eye)
This is one of the most common conditions of the eye that is very contagious. The condition is mostly caused by infection either from virus or bacteria, although it can as well be caused by other things. Pink eye can affect anybody including toddlers. When an infection affects your thin layer of the eye which is referred to as conjunctiva you will end up getting this problem. The infection causes the blood vessels within the conjunctiva to become irritated thereby swelling up to cause your eye to appear as if it is pink in color. In some cases, conjunctivitis can be seen with a reddish color appearance.
- Dry eyes
Also referred to as dry eye syndrome, this is a condition that be caused by either your tear gland producing insufficient amount of tears to lubricate and nourish the eyes, or in other cases the tears produced may be of poor quality hence poor lubrication and nourishment of the eyes. When you are suffering from a chronic dry eye syndrome, this can result in your eyes surfaces to become irritated and inflamed hence causing them to become reddish.
As much as this condition cannot be treated, there are several ways you may use to manage the situation. In this case, your doctor may prescribe some artificial tears that you may drop in your eyes whenever they feel dry.
- Allergy
Sometimes red eyes are also referred to as allergy eyes. This is because, in most cases when a person is suffering from this symptom, he/she is described to be suffering from allergic reactions. This condition is very common to people who have a very sensitive immune system whereby, their immune reacts to a foreign substance such as pollen, dander, dust or chemicals to produce histamines as part of the inflammatory response which happens so that it may fight the allergen. As a result of all these reactions, your blood vessels in the eyes enlarge, thereby making your eye to appear reddish in color and watery.
It may be necessary to remove all the allergens that result in allergy or avoid areas that have them. Your doctor may prescribe some anti-histamine eye drops that may as well offer relief to your condition.
- Contact lenses
This is one of the major red eye causes especially for those people who over wear them and fail to take good care of the lenses. This may result in the build-up or irritating surface deposits with microbes on your eyes.
Red eyes that result from over-use of contact lenses can be a sign of a very serious infection of the eyes such as keratitis or fungal infections. If you wear lenses and your eyes become red, remove them and visit your optician to find out how you can resolve that issue.
Over-wearing of contact lenses can as well make a dry eye syndrome worse since they reduce the supply of oxygen to the cornea, and sometimes they restrict the normal flow of tears from tear ducts which are located just below where contact lenses rest especially if they are ill-fitted.
- Computer vision syndrome
Your eyes sometimes may be over-worked when someone works on a computer for longer periods without giving eyes some breaks, thereby resulting to eye tiredness. Computer vision syndrome may be associated by red, burning and tired eyes. The one reason behind this condition is that, when people are working on a computer they blink less and this may cause the eyes to become dry.
- Eye injury
Any injury or trauma to the eye can be so painful and may cause your eyes to become red, with bloodshot eyes, and in severe cases you may end up having a subconjunctival hemorrhage. Trauma to the eye may result from accidents, cosmetic eyelid surgery and even use of harmful eye products. Usually, during injury there is an inflammatory response that results in blood vessels in the eye to dilate allowing more blood to flow to the injured area to facilitate faster healing. This blood vessels dilation or breakage in serious cases may result in red eyes.
Other red eye causes
- Corneal ulcer
Any infections that occur to the cornea are usually very serious when it comes to your site and therefore should be treated as an emergency issue. Corneal ulcer is an eye condition that is associated with red eye, itchiness and pain, poor vision and eye discharge as common symptoms. Usually, eye ulcer is as a result of untreated eye infection or injury.
- Ocular herpes
Also referred to as eye herpes, this is a recurrent eye viral infection that is caused by a type 1 herpes simplex virus which is common in causing cold sores. This condition is usually associated with symptoms such as red eyes, swollen eyes, pain, watery eyes, discharge and sensitivity to light. This type of herpes can result in corneal scarring if treatment is not done quickly, and in some cases the condition may call for corneal transplant so that your vision is restored.
- Uveitis
This is an inflammation that occurs to the middle layer of the eye commonly referred to as uvea. This condition is associated with red eyes, sensitivity to light, and occurrence of floaters and blurry vision in your sight. Uveitis is caused by numerous issues most of the common ones being eye infections, eye injury, and systemic autoimmune disorder. However, many of the uveitis cases, the underlying cause are not easily known.
If this condition is not treated in time, it can result in detachment of the retina, cataracts and high ocular pressure, all which can cause you a permanent loss of your sight.
- Glaucoma
This condition mostly is gradual and asymptomatic while it develops. Thereafter, the patient may undergo a sudden pain, bright red eyes associated with halos around lights, loss of vision and nausea. Acute angle-closure glaucoma may be a sight threatening problem that needs to be addressed quickly. The spike that results from intraocular pressure can lead to a permanent loss of sight in the shortest time if it is not reduced.
One Bloodshot Eye no Pain
As we have said above, bloodshot eye occur due to many reasons some of which we have talked above. For example, bloodshot eye appears when the blood vessels on the surface of your white part of the eye swell up. The swelling may be due any of the seasons we have shared above. However it may happen that the only one eye was affected by this condition. In this case, we say that you are suffering from a single or one bloodshot eye.
There are red eye causes that may be accompanied by pain while others may not. In fact, most of the red eye causes are painful but some of them are not associated with pain. Instead of pain, some conditions may just be associated with sensitivity to light, watery eyes and discharge in company with a burning sensation. Regardless of how your case is, you are not supposed to sit back and wait while your eye has developed a problem. Instead you should book an appointment with your doctor as quickly as possible to avoid worsening your condition.
Red Itchy Eyes Causes
Also referred to allergy eyes, red itchy eyes (sometimes with watery eyes) that are caused by same allergens may result in sneezing, coughing, runny nose among other conditions that the affected person may go through. Sources reveal that about 50 million in the US have seasonal allergies and the effect keeps own increasing time after time. You can as well get itchy red eye from any of the conditions we have discussed above.
The severity of the itchy red eyes condition will depend on the underlying cause of the problem. There are some conditions that we have talked about above that will only need adequate medical intervention to go away. However, some other conditions like pink eye will heal without any medical treatment, although in the case it is caused by bacterial infection, some antibiotics will speed up the healing.
How to Treat Red Eyes
Many progressive ways such as surgical eye whitening procedures have been carried out successfully and they are proving to be helpful when it comes to this problem. However, they sometime can result to cosmetic complication is not properly done and worse case they can damage your eye sight. While you want to treat your red eyes condition, it is good first if you know, among the above underlying conditions which one could be the cause for your red eyes.
Your doctor may diagnose your red eye by visually examining the appearance and asking for the symptoms you experience. Every underlying condition is treated separately according to the treatments available to treat it successfully.
- Eye injury may range from minor to serious issues such as pierced eye and chemical eye burns. Regardless of what caused the injury, any trauma to your eye should be addressed in the emergency room.
- You may reduce computer vision syndrome by taking numerous breaks while working on a computer, wearing special computer glasses and modifying your work station. You may as well use lubricating eye drops to keep your eyes moist and healthy and free from red eye.
- Contact lens-induced red eye can be minimized by keeping the lenses as clean as possible and replacing them when necessary. You doctor May as well advice on use of contact lenses made from different material such as gas permeable lenses or the use of daily disposable lenses.
- There are numerous types of conjunctivitis and when it comes to treatment, you should be sure of your condition so that you may strike the correct way to treat it.
How do you get rid of Red Eyes at Home
Normally, eyes are a very important part of the body and for that case they should always be taken care of. Serious issues concerning your eyes should be addressed by your doctor. However, if the condition is not serious you may opt try some of the home remedies we have discussed below.
- Warm compress
Warm water may help to speed up the movement of blood to the affected area to speed up the healing. You may warm some water, and then put a clean towel in it and rinse. Slowly press the towel around the sensitive areas of your eyes severally, so that the temperature is kept at a reasonable level.
- Cool compress
If you have tried a warm compress and it is not working for your case, you may try the use of cold compress. Just soak a clean towel in clean cool water and rinse. Then slightly press the towel on your eyes as you remove severally in intervals of 8 hours until you see some change.
- Artificial tears
Usually, natural tears are known to lubricate the eye and nourish the by removing dirt and giving them a normal good look. However, if you have insufficient quantity and quality tears, you may use tear drops to facilitate the normal work of your tears. Tear drops are acquired over the counter which may as well help your eyes to remain healthy.
How to Clear Red Eyes Fast
The most important and first thing you should do for red eyes is to rest them. Most of the common causes of red eyes that we have talked about above can just by a simple way or giving your eyes some rest. This can be done by minimizing time take to look at your computer, TV or phone and just taking a great nap. If you can’t give your eyes a rest then should at least have some breaks when looking some sensitive light.
You can acquire some eye drops that are found over the counter which may as well help to clear your eyes. Also artificial tears may raid if your red eye causes are from dry eye syndrome. Artificial tears are used to assist in lubricating and nourishing your eye so long as you make sure you are using the product that you have been prescribed to by a physician.
You may as well try some eye whitening products, make sure they are of good quality as in some cases, they have been said to worsen the red eye condition.
More references
- Red eye: http://www.nhs.uk/conditions/red-eye/Pages/Introduction.aspx
- Red eyes, bloodshot eyes: causes and treatment: http://www.allaboutvision.com/conditions/red-eyes.htm
- Bloodshot eyes: http://www.nativeremedies.com/ailment/causes-of-bloodshot-eyes.html
- What causes eye redness: http://www.healthline.com/symptom/eye-redness
- Eye allergies: how to get relief from itchy, watery eyes: http://www.allaboutvision.com/conditions/allergies.htm