Pink Eye Health Video

Pink eye is an inflammation of the white of the eye sometimes caused by a virus or bacteria and sometimes by an allergic reaction. Get expert tips and advice on preventing, diagnosing, and treating pink eye in this video.

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Consult a doctor if you or your child experience symptoms
Consult a doctor if you can't open your eyes in the morning
Treat the eye quickly to prevent the spread of the disease

About this Author

Dr. Patel grew up in Texas and studied at the University of Texas at Arlington. In 1996, he graduated as a member of the Gold Key International Optometric Honor Society with a doctor of optometry degree from the University of Houston. Dr. Patel completed a residency in Hospital Based and Geriatric Eye Care at the Veterans Administration Medical Center in Portland, Oregon. During his residency, Dr. Patel served as a clinical instructor to interns from Pacific University and the New England College of Optometry. Dr. Patel has provided hours of clinical procedures workshops for both the Oregon and Alberta, Canada Optometric Associations. He has volunteered his skills on an eye care team in Thailand, and the Special Olympics programs in Oregon. Dr. Patel also serves as a clinical examiner for the National Boards in Optometry, as a consultant to the Portland VA Medical Center, and Adjunct Faculty for the Pacific University College of Optometry.

DR. RAJ PATEL: Hi. I'm Dr. Raj Patel, optometrist at Vancouver Contact Lens and Vision Clinic here in Vancouver Washington, and I'd like to talk to you a little bit about pinkeye. Pinkeye or medically known as conjunctivitis is an inflammation or an infection of that transparent membrane that lines the front surface of the eye that covers the white part of the eye. That transparent lining is actually called the conjunctiva. So when the conjunctiva becomes red and inflamed, we call that conjunctivitis. The cause of pinkeye or conjunctivitis is commonly bacterial or viral, and occasionally it has an allergic component. When this happens, when the eye undergoes this inflammation or infection, the blood vessels on the white part of the eye get a little dilated and then enlarged and then as the result, they cast this red-pink-colored hue onto the white part of the eye and that's where we get the name pinkeye or red-eye. Again, it's just kind of a common word, pinkeye or red-eye, they are used loosely to describe a group of problems called conjunctivitis. Though most of time the inflammation or pinkeye is an irritant and it's bothersome, it typically doesn't affect your eyesight. Some types of pinkeyes can be contagious though, and so it should be diagnosed and treated early. This is especially important in preschool-age children who commonly develop both the viral and the bacterial component and they to just pass it on from child to child. So pinkeye, although can be irritating, it is usually harmless, but in certain cases, they can be a little bit contagious, so it's important to get it checked out, especially within the first two weeks of its onset, that tends to be the time frame that it tends to be most transmittable from patient to patient. Some of the symptoms that are associated with pinkeye include redness or itchiness or one or both of your eyes and some sensitivity to light, a gritty feeling with the eyes, tearing occasionally, and discharge, especially the discharge tends to be more prominent in the morning when you wake up and that sometimes is described as a matted or stickiness to the lids and the lids are a little bit tough to open. This pinkeye is typically diagnosed with the symptoms and also through the kind of a microscopic exam of the front of the eye that the eye doctor will do for you. The treatment of pinkeye is based on the origin of the problem, so if the pinkeye tends to be bacterial in nature, we will typically prescribe some antibiotic drops or ointments to help deal with it. If it's viral, it tends to run its course, and so we typically will ask the patient to use some over-the-counter drops, antihistamine drops, or artificial tears to help control the symptoms and let it run its course similar to a common cold. And in those individuals that we have the allergic type of conjunctivitis, we'll typically prescribe some anti-inflammatory or antihistamine eyedrops. So the take home message is that if you tend to have some of these symptoms or if your child has some of these symptoms suggestive of the pinkeye, make sure and have them checked pretty promptly especially within a few days of the onset because the quicker it's treated, the more likely we are to reduce the spread of the disease.