Pain Relief for an Eye Infection

Eye infections are caused by bacteria or viruses. Common eye infections include conjunctivitis, commonly known as pink eye; blepharitis cellulitis; corneal ulcer and trachoma. Contact lens wearers commonly experience eye infections from the bacteria building up on the contact when they have failed to disinfect it. These infections can affect different parts of your eye, from the lid to the cornea and even the optic nerves. Eye infections often cause pain, for which there are several different treatment options.

Symptoms

• If you experience itching and flaking of your eye lids, you may have an eye infection. Pain, blurred vision and watery eyes are also common symptoms. You may also experience discharge from your eye, and swelling to your eye or eyelids.

Pain Treatment

• Most eye infection pain can be soothed with a warm compress applied to your eyes. If you are taking medication for your infection and the warm compress does not help, you should try a cool, wet compress to relieve the itching symptoms.

  Use over-the-counter artificial tears to ease your discomfort. You can purchase these at your local pharmacy.

  You can try an over-the-counter pain reliever, like acetaminophen or ibuprofen, to relieve the pain.

  Avoid further irritation of the eye by ceasing the use of eye makeup until your infection is clear, in addition to protecting your eyes from dirt and other irritants.

Prevention

• Eye infections can be spread through contact with discharge from the eye, which contains the agents that caused your infection. If you touch your eye, your hand then has bacteria on it, which can be spread to whatever your hand then touches. To prevent spreading eye infections, wash your hands before or after touching your eyes or face, and after putting medicine in your eyes.

  Do not share makeup. More importantly, do not use makeup until your infection has healed, as you could reinfect yourself. Furthermore, don't share towels or other linens.

See Your Doctor

• For most eye infections, you should see your doctor. To diagnose what is plaguing you, your doctor will take a sample of fluid from your eye using a cotton swab, and have it analyzed to properly diagnose the infection.

  Your doctor will prescribe antibiotics to treat bacterial infections. These antibiotics can be pills to take orally, or eye drops and ointments, which should be applied to the inside of the eyelid three times each day for one week.