You should visit your GP or go to the accident and emergency (A&E) department of your local hospital if you have an eye injury that was caused by an object hitting your eye at high speed, such as a stone being thrown up from a lawn mower, or a piece of grit entering your eye while hammering or chiselling.
The healthcare professional treating you will ask you about your symptoms and how the injury occurred. They will also examine your eye in order to assess the extent of your eye injury. If your eye is painful, anaesthetic eye drops may be used to numb your eye before examining it.
Eye examination
During the eye examination, your eye will be checked for a scratch or graze (abrasion) and for the presence of a foreign body, such as grit or dust.
If you have an abrasion on the outer layer of your eye (cornea), the healthcare professional who is examining you may put eye drops that contain a special dye called fluorescein into your eye. The eye drops will stain any damaged areas of your cornea bright green, making them easier to see. A cobalt-blue filter may also be used to show up any abrasions.
If the healthcare professional thinks that you may have a foreign body stuck in your eye, they may gently turn your eyelid inside out and examine your eye using a magnifying glass.
As part of your eye examination, you may be asked to look around in all directions. This is to check whether there is any damage to your extra-ocular muscles, which connect your eyeball to your eye socket (orbit) and control your eye’s movements. You may also be asked to blink several times to check if your eyelids are working properly.
The healthcare professional who is examining you may also shine a light into each of your eyes to assess the contraction of your pupils, which should become smaller when the light is shone into them. In some cases, a slit lamp (a lamp that emits a narrow beam of intense light) may be used to check for any damage to your eye that may otherwise be difficult to see.
To test the sharpness of your vision, you may be asked to read letters of various sizes from a wall chart. This is known as a Snellen chart, and is the same test that you may have during a routine eye examination.
X-rays (where pictures of the inside of the body are taken using small doses of radiation) are rarely used to diagnose eye injuries. However, if it is thought that a foreign body is stuck in your eye, an X-ray or a computerised tomography (CT) scan (a scan that produces more detailed images) may be recommended.
Ruling out other eye conditions
If your eye is red, other conditions which can cause this will need to be ruled out. Mild conditions that can cause redness in the eye include:
- bacterial conjunctivitis – a common eye infection that is caused by bacteria
- subconjunctival haemorrhage – bleeding into the whites of your eyes that is caused by burst blood vessels
- ultraviolet keratitis – inflammation (swelling) of the cornea that is caused by ultraviolet light, such as from a sun bed
Some of the more severe conditions that can cause redness in the eye include:
- acute glaucoma – a painful condition that causes pressure in your eye and affects your vision
- orbital cellulitis – a bacterial skin infection that can spread to your eyes
- iritis (uveitis) – inflammation (swelling) of the uveal tract of your eye (a group of connected structures inside your eye, including the iris)
If your GP, or another healthcare professional who is treating you, thinks that you may have any of these conditions, they will refer you to an ophthalmologist (a specialist in treating eye conditions) for further assessment and treatment.
