eye care emergencies can be a very scary thing to deal with whether you got scratched or poked in
the eye maybe a foreign body or chemical splash to the eye these sort of emergencies can cause
severe pain redness and even lead to vision loss and even blindness for some people. and i can
tell you from seeing these sort of cases every single week in the eye clinic people often make
critical mistakes early on that if they just would have done things a little differently they could
have avoided such tragic problems and help would have helped avoid having such bad complications
and would have healed their eye better so in this video i'm going to share some eye care
emergency tips and some eye care first aid prep that'll help you be more prepared when emergency
strikes so that you can have better outcomes so smash that like button and let's take a look.
hey what's up everyone this is dr alan here from the dr eye health show helping you learn
all about the eyes vision so you can keep seeing your best today and for tomorrow so if you're new
to the channel consider hitting that subscribe button down below so that you don't miss any of
my future videos and to start us off i think the most common thing that i see in the eye clinic is
probably people coming in with foreign bodies or some sort of chemical exposure to the eye
when we say foreign bodies i mean any sort of foreign object that could have gotten into the eye
most commonly we'll see people with chunks of metal from grinding out in the workshop or in
a garage somewhere and not wearing proper safety eye protection or maybe they were
cutting wood or splitting wood or something like that and a sliver came up and got them i've seen
a lot of different things get in the eye i've even seen like popcorn kernels and things like that
if a chemical or a foreign body ever gets into your eye the first thing that most people will do
just out of instinct is they go up to rub their eye and do not do that try your best to urge
yourself to not give that little voice in the back of your head to not rub your eye rubbing the eyes
is going to either make things worse by digging the foreign body deeper into the eye or it's
just going to kind of expose that chemical again deeper into the tissue you don't want to do that
so again i say do not rub the eyes the next big thing is you need to rinse rinse rinse your eye
if you were to contact lens wear especially again with chemicals or anything like that make sure you
quick wash your hands and remove those contacts immediately and then you need to flush your eyes
now there are several ways to flush the eyes if you are at work or a place of business that has
an eye wash station that is perfect to go use that if you don't have that available like i
don't have that here in my house instead i go up to either the bathroom or kitchen sink and i turn
my eyes under the faucet and i turn on warm water don't turn on hot water or freezing cold water
just something kind of lukewarm it's going to be more comforting but you want to flush that eye
out for at least about 15 minutes and this can be somewhat challenging especially when your eye is
in pain but you want to make sure you're blinking frequently and that you're able to kind of hold
that eye open a bit so that the water flushes right in and then flushes out again you want to
rinse whatever chemicals or foreign object might have gotten into the eye you want to try your
best to get that out of the eye if you happen to be a parent with a young child who got something
into their eye this might be pretty tough because the kids are often pretty hysterical they want to
get their things out of their eyes so they may be trying to either rub their eyes really hard
or you need to calm them down but you just need to rest assure them that things are going to be okay
and that yes you do need to rinse whatever's in the eye out of it and it's going to make it feel
better now after rinsing the eye whether you think you got everything out of there or not i do think
it is best to call a local eye care professional in your area right away to see if they can get
you to be seen in general for these sort of emergencies you have a foreign body or chemical
exposure it's usually not best to go straight to the emergency room because many times emergency
rooms don't have all the technical equipment that we have in the eye clinic to address these issues
usually the doctors and medical staff in the emergency room are amazing at fixing broken bones
if you've seriously injured yourself or you're having a heart attack then definitely go to the er
but for most cases eyes they kind of shy away from really touching those too much they just don't
have the equipment to really see what's going on so if you do live in an area that has a dedicated
eye care professional whether an ophthalmologist or optometrist they can usually address your
needs a little bit better with more finesse to reduce your chances of having complications
and from there if your eye doctor can't address the issues are they something out of their hands
then they will direct you over to the emergency room otherwise nine times out of ten the doctors
at the emergency room always end up referring you over to us anyway but again of course if you don't
have an eye doctor in an area then definitely go ahead and proceed call the emergency room see if
you can get seen even if you got a foreign body in the on you think you rinsed it out i still think
it's a good idea to be seen get things checked out so they can be sure that everything did get out
of the eye it's amazing how many times i'll find rust particles and different little little beads
of stuff under the eyelids what often happens is something will get stuck under the eyelid
and every time you blink that little piece of whatever is going up and down and scratching your
eye over and over again and let's just say in the case of a chemical exposure something splashes up
into your eye see if you can bring the canister or whatever the chemical came in and bring that with
you going into the eye care professional because they'll want to see what exactly that chemical is
if it's something that they need to neutralize further or this better understanding of how those
chemicals react on the eye because depending on the chemical and the ph whether it's really
acidic or basic that will change a little bit of what your doctor is going to understand how that's
gonna affect the eye and just a fun fact although most people think an acid exposure to the eye
would be pretty bad in fact just on the opposite end of the spectrum something very basic such as
sodium hydroxide that's used in soap making for example is usually way way worse for the eyes but
again the big things are don't rub the eyes rinse the eyes super well and call your eye doctor right
away one handy thing i want to mention in case you have emergency kit or just want to keep it
in your medicine cabinet is something such as eye wash this is just an eye relief eye wash that you
can buy generically over the pharmacy or through online this one is from bausch and Lomb, works
pretty simple it's just an eye wash solution that you can use to clean out the eye in case again
something gets in there or splashes in there and overall it works pretty easily you can either tilt
your head back and squirt it directly into the eye or it has a little eye cup that you can fill
with water and then it's just a matter of holding that to the eyelid and blinking multiple times as
it rinses out the eye the one big thing about any eye wash i would mention even though it's like 99
sterile water it does have a preservative in it called benzalkonium chloride or bak
and in the eye care community we know this as a very good preservative for eye drops however
bak can really hurt or irritate the eyes for a lot of people and so you never want to use this
with contact lenses if you try to use it as a contact lens disinfecting solution or store
your contacts in it do not do that it's going to burn your eyes again don't do that it's only for
eye wash only what i always thought was funny is that the little plastic cup that it has i actually
have an old glass little eye cup like this that my grandparents left me when i graduated school
uh i don't really see these glass ones made anymore but it's kind of a cool little
hand-me-down it kind of reminds me of a little uh sunday scoop sort of thing if i had a tiny little
spoon now let's answer a quick question live from this week's comments we have alex who asks "i am
17 and have many floaters but in one eye i have a big floater like a big curtain is this normal?"
well alex honestly when it comes to any sort of new floaters in your vision especially big ones
you definitely want to get that checked out in fact if you're starting to see a big curtain in
your vision whether it be a blurry curtain or if it's a black curtain coming down from the
ceiling or maybe rising up from the floor that could potentially be something more serious such
as retinal tear or detachment and you definitely want to get that checked out as soon as you can so
if you haven't seen a doctor to have that checked out i encourage you call your local eye doctor
and get seen otherwise alex thanks again for the question i hope things turn out
if you or anybody else have questions comments about eye care drop them in the comments section
i hope to feature yours in the next upcoming video next on today's list is getting scratches pokes or
abrasions to the surface of the eye and these can come from little babies poking their moms in their
eye with their finger to a tree branch coming back smacking someone in the eye there's a lot
of things that can scratch the eyes and usually in these cases you're going to end up with a painful
red eye that hurts every single time you blink and i always say if the eye is painful if it's
red or if your vision changes at all you need to again call your eye doctor and get seen and again
if the thing that hit in the eye was perhaps dirty like dirty fingers or something like that it's
best again to rinse the eyes out and then call the eye doctor if the eye just feels a little bit
irritated but you're not having redness or pain or any of the kind of vision changes then oftentimes
just making sure the eye gets lubricated with some sort of an eye drop is definitely appropriate
oftentimes when patients come in we'll give them samples of different eye drops usually something
either kind of runnier or more liquid that is better throughout the day because it doesn't
distort your vision but oftentimes you'll find something a little bit thicker such as a gel drop
will last a little bit longer on the eye and make it more comfortable however because the gel is a
little bit thicker and more viscous it may blur your vision a big thing about using eye drops if
you're heading into the eye clinic try to avoid any eye drops that say get the red out typically
Visine is one that's very well known most people use that to get the red out of their eyes try to
avoid anything that's getting the red out because that will artificially turn the eye more whitish
and make it look healthier than if it was truly just red and your eye doctor may not appropriately
diagnose or treat that eye because it's been artificially blanched blood vessels so in general
if you're using an eye drop at all especially before going in to see the eye doctor it's
best to just use a neutral artificial tear that doesn't have those extra chemicals in it if you
are someone who's using eye drops multiple times throughout the day i'm talking more than four or
five drops throughout the day it is best to reach for a non-preserved or preservative free eye drop
almost every single brand has these different type of drops they come in these little individual
vials these little dropper rats but these type of drops are usually best just because then you
don't have all these extra chemical preservatives going into the eye now the next quick tip i want
to share has to do with eye allergies a lot of people will go out for a hike or they'll travel
someplace new and suddenly they're having this allergic response their eyes are getting red
and puffy and they want to scratch at them all the time that's oftentimes allergy symptoms and
that's just a histamine response by your body to any sort of allergen in the air such as pollen
grass ragweed those sort of things now when it comes to dealing with eye allergies i have a lot
of other tips i've recommended in other videos one of the big quick easy things i think you can have
on hand in your emergency kit is something like pat a day pad today used to be a prescription
only eye drop for allergies that only eye doctors could prescribe here in the united states but
this medication has since kind of lost its patent and now it's available over the counter
only costs about 20 or so it comes in both a one time a day dosing that's more for itchiness kind
of the puffiness of the eye but it does also also comes in a twice a day dosing which is good for
allergies but also helps with a little bit of the redness too if you don't have access to pad today
right away with you and you do have just some sort of generic artificial tear definitely use
that that will rinse out pollen out of the eye or grab a cold washcloth or something cool that you
can hold to your eyelid because that'll cool down the swelling if you do want to dive more deep into
dealing with allergies or puffy eyes i do have a couple of those videos and you can check those out
either by clicking the link up here to the side or i'll include a link to the full videos down in the
description below in addition if you're someone who just loves being ultra prepared for any sort
of emergency i have a friend Denise Jordan who recently did kind of a review or prepping of her
first aid kit and i encourage you to go check that out if you want to learn a little bit more
and i'll include that video link in the video description below again so you can check it out
otherwise the last little bonus tip that i would often keep in their first aid kit or
definitely in our medicine cabinet is something like hypochlorous acid if you've never heard of
hypochlorous acid i have done another video on it but hypochlorous acid in short is a disinfectant
it is safer than using something like bleach where bleach can be pretty irritating to the skin
hypochlorous acid is like a brother to it however it's much safer doesn't burn your skin and it can
be used for multiple different uses in fact it was first invented to help with healing diabetic foot
ulcers but hypochlorous acid this is just one that my friends over at the ilove company make this one
is the lid and lash cleanser they specifically make it for cleaning the eyelids which helps
with blepharitis the buildup of bacteria and skin oils around the eyelashes but it's also
really good for helping with dry eyes and if you happen to be somebody with like irritants or stuff
around the eyes it's just good for cleaning the eyelids but i always find it really helpful for
just cleaning around the eyes or if you have any sort of little scrapes or maybe you rub the eye
a little bit with your fingers like oh what did i just put on my eyelid this will help clean off
any sort of nasty germs or anything that's like that and again it's gentle enough it's not going
to dry out or hurt your skin otherwise i really hope you found this video helpful that next time
if you are in one of those emergencies whether it's you a friend or a family member you can act
fast make sure you can help them tell them not to rub the eyes rinse out the eyes if they need to
and then call the eye doctor right away if you want to check out anything like the eye wash or
hydrate solution or any of the eye drops that i mentioned in this video you can always check out
the links in the video description below so you can find them easily again this is dr joseph allen
here from doctor eye health thanks so much for watching keep an eye on it and we'll talk to you
soon you