^

Health

Pain in the eyes

, medical expert
Last reviewed: 23.04.2024
Fact-checked
х

All iLive content is medically reviewed or fact checked to ensure as much factual accuracy as possible.

We have strict sourcing guidelines and only link to reputable media sites, academic research institutions and, whenever possible, medically peer reviewed studies. Note that the numbers in parentheses ([1], [2], etc.) are clickable links to these studies.

If you feel that any of our content is inaccurate, out-of-date, or otherwise questionable, please select it and press Ctrl + Enter.

Pain in the eyes can occur not only because the optic nerve is damaged or something is wrong with the cornea of the eye. When the eyes are aching, they can signal about diseases of completely different organs. Therefore, pain in the eyes can be a signal of danger, in which you need to immediately consult a doctor for examination. What causes pain in the eyes?

Pain in the eyes

trusted-source[1], [2], [3]

When the eyes have nothing to do with

Pain in the eyes can occur due to arterial hypertension (persistent high blood pressure), after a flu or acute respiratory infection, as well as with vegeto-vascular dystonia, neurosis and other diseases associated with inflammation of the nerve endings.

When the eye hurts, we think that the cause of the pain is in it. Actually, the fault can be a completely different disease and organ. For example, pain in the eye can tear a person with migraine or a so-called tension headache. The eye can hurt and with a strong overstrain of the facial muscles.

Sometimes the pain felt in the eyes comes from other parts of the body. What we take for pain in the eye, in fact, can be a headache or pain associated with the tension of the muscles of the face. To make sure where the source of pain in the eyes comes from, you can not tolerate it, getting rid of anesthetizing pills and eye drops. You should immediately consult a doctor for diagnosis. If the blame for pain in the eyes is a serious illness that is not related to the eyes, it is enough to cure them so that the pain does not bother anymore.

The structure of the eye and the nature of pain

The eye is translated from Latin as oculus. It is an organ that belongs to both humans and animals, it is sensory, it has the ability to capture wavelengths and electromagnetic radiation, the eye helps us see objects and their outlines in the dark.

Eyeballs are paired organs, they have an irregular shape in the form of a ball. Eyeballs are located in the eye cavities of the skull. Since the eyeballs have many optic nerves, they are very sensitive. In the eyeballs there are also many pain receptors. Which, if damaged, overworked, with a long, unblinking stare, signals are transmitted about pain in the brain.

Since the eyes are endowed with so many nerves and pain receptors, they are very sensitive to the pains of the internal organs of man. That is why the eyes can react with pain, when an entirely different organ is damaged or inflamed.

The presence of nerve endings is also a good defense of the eye from various harmful effects. If they were not there, the eye could easily be damaged. And so, at the slightest external influence - mechanical, temperature, the eye instantly closes by the century, and this protects it from damage.

Characteristics of pain in the eyes

Pain in the eyes can be sharp, pulling, can be expressed simply in the form of unpleasant and uncomfortable sensations inside the eye or around it. This can be a drawing pain in the eyeballs.

Pain can occur not only if the eye is damaged or when a foreign body enters it, but also when the eyeball is overloaded. This means that the eye muscles are overstrained. Pain of eye strain can also occur with severe fatigue during or after work on the computer. Or watching TV for a long time. Then the pain arises in the eye socket area.

Pain in the eyes can occur even in a completely normal environment, but if a person has incorrectly picked up contact lenses or glasses, his eyes may begin to hurt. The pain can be pulling or, conversely, strong, as if sand was poured into the eyes.

The localization of pain in the eyes can be a carotid artery, an oculomotor nerve, branches of the carotid artery, eyeballs, the eye socket itself.

In order not to aggravate the state of the eyes, you should immediately consult a doctor and check your eyesight when you have pain.

trusted-source[4], [5], [6]

Pain in the eyes of an ocular character

Ocular pains are those that depend on the external structures of the eye surface. These pains can be signs of eye diseases associated with disorders of this structure.

Conjunctivitis

A conjunctiva is called the thin membrane, which covers the eyeball, and besides it, also the eyelid from the inside. Types of conjunctivitis may be different: it is allergic, chemical, bacterial or viral. The pain with all these diseases is not very serious, but it worries a person all the time. With conjunctivitis, itching and redness of eyelids or eye proteins are also possible.

trusted-source[7]

Inflammation of the cornea of the eye

This disease often provokes pain in the eye. It is often combined with scraping (abrasion) of the cornea. What is the cornea of the eye? This is its mucous surface, which is designed to transmit light. Thus, a person sees.

When abrasion on the surface of the cornea of the eye, there are scratches or one scratch, but this is enough to disturb the person's pain and vision.

Scratches on the surface of the eye may appear if an alien body enters the eye. Abrasion can also occur when a person wears contact lenses without removing them, or inadvertently inserts into the eyes. A cornea inflames due to infections that fall into the area of a scratch. Scratch gives a person a feeling, as if in his eye there is a foreign object.

Eye burns

Eye burns are thermal and chemical. This is a very serious danger to human vision and health. A chemical burn can disfigure an eye when there is an explosion of objects with acid or alkali in the composition. A thermal burn of the eye happens, if a person suffers from fire, powerful light radiation, for example, welding or a long stay in the sun.

This can be avoided if you protect your eyes with sunglasses, and when welding - special welding glasses or a mask.

trusted-source[8], [9],

Flater

It is a disease that causes severe pain in the eyes. It arises from the fact that the eyelid is inflamed, and the sebaceous glands in its corners are clogged. When the inflammatory process occurs in the sebaceous glands, the so-called barley appears on the person's eye. It is a small tumor in the form of a barley grain, which hurts and itches.

trusted-source[10]

What is orbital pain?

What is orbital pain?

Orbital pain in the eyes is caused by eye diseases. These pains are usually strong, deaf, they are localized in the eye socket or eyeball. These pains do not take place even during treatment.

Glaucoma

Glaucoma is a very serious eye disease, which is accompanied by orbital pain. However, glaucoma may not be accompanied by pain in 40% of cases. Glaucoma appears due to increased intraocular pressure. Its consequences are severe - a significant loss of vision and complete blindness, as well as a poor vision in the twilight.

Increased pressure in the eyes may appear due to the fact that the outflow of fluid inside the eye is difficult. The same fluid can be produced in excess, and therefore intraocular pressure may also increase. It is necessary to undergo treatment, which will appoint a doctor.

Irity

This is also an eye disease, which can be accompanied by severe pain inside the eyeball and redness of the eye proteins. Iriitis is the inflammation of the iris around the pupil. The eye with iritis is particularly irritating and painful in bright light. There is information that irityt is usually accompanied by arthritis - a disease of the joints and bone tissue, so you need to undergo a thorough examination not only of the eyes, but also to examine the condition of bones and joints.

Inflammation of the optic nerve

The optic nerve is not on the front surface, but in the back of the eye. Therefore, pain with inflammation of the optic nerve is usually deep, pulling.

The causes of this disease can be colds and flu, multiple sclerosis, tuberculosis, sore throats, syphilis, brucellosis. Inflammation of the optic nerve can also be caused by various intoxications of the body, as well as diseases of the internal organs: kidneys, liver, blood diseases, deterioration of quality and blood flow velocity. The optic nerve of the eye can become inflamed due to pregnancy, which occurs with abnormalities, eye trauma.

With an inflammation of the optic nerve, the quality of vision can be greatly reduced in a person, he sees objects not in the forms in which they are, in the field of vision disturbances may appear, scotoma (visual field defects).

Sinusitis

This disease, which happens due to viral or bacterial infections of the paranasal sinuses. It can be the cause of eye pain, because the nerves that are in the eyes, take painful impulses coming from the sinuses of the nose - it's close.

Will uevit

In this disease, which arises from inflammation of the pigmented areas of the eyes, there is a strong pain in the eyes. It is also accompanied by redness, inflammation, severe pain. Other symptoms are nausea, vomiting, a halo around the lamp or other light source. The causes of uevitis can be getting foreign objects into the eyes, as well as trauma to the shell of the eye. If you do not treat uvitis, you can lose sight.

The foreign body enters the eye

When an alien body enters the eye - at least a cilium, even a mote, even a small midge - the eye begins to ache, the eyelid automatically closes, the eye begins a lacrimation - an automatic reaction to the stranger in the eye. An alien body can injure the eye, an infection can get there, causing the eye to become inflamed and painful, there are rez that are hard to sustain.

How to help?

It is necessary, first of all, to wash the eye with running water, not very cold. Then you need to drip into the eye the solution of the albucid, and if it is not found at hand, you can try to displace the foreign body, often blinking and massaging the closed eye towards the inner corner.

If you have suffered from a foreign body, when working with electrical tools (shavings, wood or metal, a microscopic piece of a part), you yourself are unlikely to be able to remove a foreign body. We need urgent help from an ophthalmologist. If you sit and wait, then in the inflamed and damaged eye keratitis or inflammation of the deep sections of the eye will develop. Keratitis is an inflammation of the eye cornea, in addition. It becomes turbid, vision becomes worse, surrounding objects spread out. And then to save the eye will have a lot of work for doctors. If at all it will be possible to save it. So, the first and main rule for eye damage is emergency medical care.

Infection that develops in the eye

This infection can enter the eye either from the outside world or from the body if it is infected with viruses (for example, during a cold). Very often, viruses enter the eye area and cause inflammation and pain if the person has had infections with genital organs or, say, the bladder. Infections can affect the eye area if a person suffers from manifestations of sinusitis if he has tooth decay, herpes, tonsillitis and other infectious diseases.

Often doctors see all the signs of infection in the eyes, but can not determine its source and even more so - cope with this infection and pain, as the body maintains the infection constantly due to autoimmune diseases.

For example, vasculitis, rheumatoid arthritis and so on. The inflammatory process in the branches of the trigeminal nerve can also be the cause of severe pain in the eye, which are cured rather poorly until their cause is found.

Disease of the vessels of the eyes

In the eyeball is concentrated a lot of small sosudikov, which nourish it. If these vessels are inflamed or narrowed, eyeballs begin to ache strongly. This pain disturbs the person and makes him suffer because of the inactive blood supply to the eyeballs and tissues that surround him (the diagnosis is ischemia). It is a disease that is difficult to diagnose. It can be detected using the ultrasonic triplex scanning method. Then the help of the ophthalmologist will be small - it is necessary also active participation of the cardiologist.

trusted-source[11], [12], [13], [14], [15]

Dry eye syndrome

This disease is the age of computer technology, when without a computer can not do any house, no workplace. People work a lot, not taking their eyes off the monitor, and gradually they have pain and pain in their eyes, as if sand was poured into it. This is due to the drying of the pupil, when a person blinks infrequently. The work of the air conditioner, fan, and heating devices also affects the dry pupil.

trusted-source[16],

When it is necessary to address to the ophthalmologist at pains in eyes

  • If the pain is accompanied by the ingress of foreign matter into the eye
  • If the pain is caused by a bruised eye
  • If the pain in the eyes occur for unknown reasons and last more than two days
  • If the pain in the eyes is accompanied by nausea, vomiting, visual impairment, weakness
  • If the eyes feel uncomfortable
  • If the pain in the eyes is accompanied by obscure outlines of objects, visual impairments

How to protect the eyes from pain

When a person works with electrical appliances, household chemicals, engaged in traumatic sport such as hockey, when the puck can get in the face, it is necessary to protect the body with a protective suit, and the eyes - with glasses or a protective mask.

Sprayers should be kept away from the eyes and properly used instructions to them. The same applies to household products with ammonia in the composition.

For children, you also need to observe the safety of gaming. For example, do not buy them small and sharp objects, arrows with iron tips. Do not leave unattended with needles and scissors. This will protect their eyes from injury.

When wearing contact lenses, you need to take care of them properly, do not take them with dirty hands, lower them into a special solution to avoid infection of the eyes.

Pain in the eyes - in most cases, the consequence of careless human behavior. Therefore, it is important to take care of eye health to avoid damaging them.

Translation Disclaimer: For the convenience of users of the iLive portal this article has been translated into the current language, but has not yet been verified by a native speaker who has the necessary qualifications for this. In this regard, we warn you that the translation of this article may be incorrect, may contain lexical, syntactic and grammatical errors.

You are reporting a typo in the following text:
Simply click the "Send typo report" button to complete the report. You can also include a comment.