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00:00Having a bloodshot or red eye can be pretty worrisome. If you're wondering what could cause
00:05this, stick around. Hi, I'm Dr. Negori. I'm a board-certified ophthalmologist and a glaucoma
00:10specialist. Today, I want to educate you on the different causes of having a sudden red eye.
00:20Quick reminder that this video is for education only and it is not meant to be medical advice,
00:25so if you are having a red eye, it is important to see your eye doctor to have a proper
00:29medical
00:29evaluation. Now first, let's discuss a red eye that is painful. Now unfortunately, a painful red eye
00:35is a cause for concern and you really do want to see an eye doctor as soon as possible if
00:40you are
00:40having redness and pain. When an eye is red and painful, there are a few different eye problems
00:46that we worry about. One more common one that can cause redness of the eye as well as pain is
00:52a
00:52scratch on the cornea. This is also commonly called a corneal abrasion. Now you may experience this if
00:57you've had something hit the eye or maybe you were playing with your toddler or grandchild or a pet
01:03and then they struck you in the eye by accident. Sometimes patients also say that they wake up with
01:08it because maybe they had inadvertently scratched their eye or rubbed their eye when they were sleeping.
01:12Corneal abrasions can also happen in contact lens wearers when patients are struggling to get
01:16their contact lenses in or out of the eye. Now along with the eye redness that comes on pretty quickly,
01:21you can also have intense pain, difficulty opening the eye, as well as light sensitivity. Now the
01:27treatment for a scratch on the cornea is going to be an antibiotic eye drop which you will need
01:32to be prescribed by a doctor. If you're unable to see an eye doctor right away, you can head to
01:36an
01:36urgent care center and they will also be able to prescribe you antibiotic eye drops. Now the purpose
01:41of these antibiotic eye drops is to actually protect the cornea while the abrasion heals in its own time.
01:46In some uncommon cases a corneal abrasion can turn into a corneal ulcer which is a much more serious
01:53eye problem because the scratch has now turned into a corneal infection. Another common cause of
01:59having a painful red eye that comes on pretty quickly is having something stuck under the eyelid
02:04up here or down here. In some of these cases this can actually also lead to a scratch on the
02:09cornea which
02:10we talked about earlier. This sometimes happens with some of my contact lens patients who get a piece of
02:15the contact lens stuck when they were struggling to take it in or out of the eye and the doctor
02:20then
02:20in that case can flip your eyelid to check if it's stuck back there. Finally another very concerning eye
02:26problem that comes on with a sudden onset painful red eye is something called angle closure glaucoma.
02:34In this situation the eye pressure shoots up fairly quickly in the eye and makes the eye red and painful.
02:40It can also cause other symptoms like nausea, vomiting, blurry vision, as well as a headache.
02:47This is a medical emergency and should be evaluated in the ER as soon as possible.
02:52Now let's take a look at some of the causes of red eye that usually don't have pain.
02:56One common cause is dry eye. Dry eye can unfortunately make the eyes chronically red.
03:01While people do experience discomfort with dry eyes they usually don't experience sudden severe pain.
03:08It is more of a chronic discomfort. There are many different ways to treat dry eyes with artificial
03:13tears being the most common first line option. Using preservative free tears at least four times
03:19a day can also help to improve eye redness over time. I have another video on this channel about why
03:24the get the red out eye drops may not be really that effective in actually getting the red out
03:30for a long period of time. Finally let's talk about something called a subconjunctival hemorrhage.
03:35This is probably one of the most common problems that I see when it comes to having a sudden onset
03:43red eye. This eye problem can make the eye very very red and bloodshot all of a sudden and it
03:49is
03:49almost never associated with any pain. Patients will often come in and give a history that they
03:55woke up and their eye was bloodshot red and they don't know why. Sometimes it can happen because again
04:00they may have been accidentally rubbing their eye or maybe they were doing some heavy weight lifting
04:05the day before. Also if you've had a coughing fit or other types of straining or the valsalva maneuver
04:11that can also lead to a subconjunctival hemorrhage. Now although the eye may look extremely red or even
04:17bloody these patients almost never have any pain. Luckily this eye problem will go away on its own but it
04:24can
04:24take two to three weeks to resolve. Now if a patient is on a blood thinner like aspirin or plavix
04:30it might
04:31take even longer to resolve. Now while having a subconjunctival hemorrhage is usually not a cause
04:35for concern and is more cosmetically annoying than anything else it is important to discuss with your
04:41doctor because if you are repeatedly having these your primary care doctor may want to run certain blood
04:47tests to make sure that there's no issues with clotting in your body. And of course you should see your
04:51eye
04:51doctor as well. Hope you found this video helpful remember to subscribe below and if you have any
04:56further questions be sure to put them in the comments and I can make a future video about it.
05:00Thanks for watching.