Clearing Your Pink Eye: Your Ultimate Guide to Prevent and Treat Conjunctivitis

The Centers for Disease Control stresses the importance of preventing and treating conjunctivitis. This common eye disease results in the swelling of the conjunctiva. Understanding the prevention and treatment of conjunctivitis can help improve your eye health. Here are the details.

Preventing Conjunctivitis

Pink eye or conjunctivitis affects the thin, clear tissue layer that covers the white of the eye and the clear tissue that lines the inner area of your eyelid. This eye ailment may infect other people. But to ensure that this condition does not worsen or spread, you must stick to simple preventive measures.

Below are some of them:

Refrain from rubbing or touching your eyes. This can transfer the infection to the other eye or worsen the condition.
Wash your hands for 20-25 seconds with water and soap. Do this, especially if you are going to treat your conjunctivitis.
Clean off the discharge from your infected eyes many times each day. Use a clean, fresh cotton ball or cloth. Dispose of the used cotton balls right away. Wash the cloth with warm water and soap.
Do not use the medicine for your infected eye on your uninfected one.
Refrain from wearing your contact lenses until your eye doctor says it is okay to do so again.
Wash your towels, bed sheets, and pillowcases with detergent and hot water.
Follow instructions when cleaning your contact lenses.
Stay away from swimming pools.
Clean your eyeglasses and be careful not to contaminate them.
Do not share your personal items.

Updating your vaccines can help prevent the diseases that are linked to conjunctivitis. These illnesses may have pink eye as a symptom. Preventing them can prevent the occurrence of this eye condition. You can get vaccines for illnesses such as chickenpox and measles.

To Avoid Getting Conjunctivitis Again

Avoiding reinfection is the goal after you recover from conjunctivitis. The fight against this eye infection does not end. There will always be a possible source of infection, which is why you should be careful.

Make sure you replace the makeup brushes that you used while you had conjunctivitis. Throw away the ones you used. Dispose of contact lenses, lens solutions, and lens cases that you used during the infection. Clean and disinfect your eyeglasses and extended-wear contacts.

Treating Conjunctivitis

The main goals of treating pink eye are to increase your comfort, lessen inflammation, and prevent the infection from spreading. There is no general solution to this eye problem. The correct treatment for this eye disease will depend on what caused it.

Below are the treatments for each type of conjunctivitis:

For chemical conjunctivitis, flush the eyes with saline solution. Topical steroids can help with swelling and pain. Severe chemical injuries are emergency cases. They can lead to scarring or even vision loss. Go to your eye doctor or the nearest emergency room right away.
For allergic conjunctivitis, avoiding or removing the irritant is necessary. Artificial tears and cool compresses can help. Steroid eye drops can relieve severe allergic conjunctivitis. Your eye doctor can also prescribe oral antihistamines.
For infectious bacterial conjunctivitis, antibiotic ointments or eye drops can stop the infection. It may improve after treating the eye for three or four days. For a viral infection, you will need to wait for it to go away on its own. This may take two to three weeks. EKC, or epidemic viral keratoconjunctivitis, is a type of pink eye that is highly contagious. Steroid drops can reduce the inflammation and pain from severe conjunctivitis.

Preventing and treating conjunctivitis is important for your eye health. At Perspective Eye Care and Eye Wear, we always ensure that our patients receive the highest level of eye care. Feel free to visit our clinic in Cullman, Alabama, for an in-person consultation. Call 256-692-1464 to set an appointment or ask about our conjunctivitis treatment packages.