Hello again and welcome back to my blog, I’m Dr. Whitney Welder, OD and I’m here today to answer your pressing eye questions. Today’s post is a little longer since its a special two-part question. “What constitutes an eye emergency?” and “When should I see my optometrist vs going to an urgent care clinic or the emergency room?” Eye emergencies come in many forms. At Prairie Vision Center, we routinely treat many different emergent eye problems. An eye emergency is anything that is causing a sudden change to the eye or vision, or causes a lot of discomfort.
Here’s a few examples of what an eye emergency may look like:
- A patient was out working in the shop and feels like there’s something in his eye, and the eye feels pain ranging from mild to severe.
- A patient wakes up and starts seeing new flashes or floaters and feels like part of her vision is missing.
- A pediatric patient wakes up with both eyes looking pink and feeling crusty.
- A patient got too close to a tree branch and accidentally scratched his eye and now it really hurts.
- A patient feels like part of her vision is missing or grayed out.
- A patient was cleaning his garage and accidentally splashed a chemical into his eye.
- A patient has a painful bump on the eyelid.
- A patient wakes up with severe eye pain and is very sensitive to light.
These are all eye emergencies that I have seen patients with before. I genuinely hope none of these ever happen to you, but if they do, the team at Prairie Vision Center would be happy to help. At Prairie Vision Center, there is a large network of ophthalmologists that we can refer to if necessary. If you are unsure about what to do, you are always welcome to give us a call (even after hours).
The emergency room is great for true emergencies. But often, if you go for eye emergencies, you may end up with super long wait times, as people with more pressing concerns will get seen first. ER doctors and urgent care professionals are often absolutely wonderful at what they do, but generally don’t have as much specific training in eye care services. In a smaller town like Wahpeton, ND, it is unlikely to have an ophthalmologist on call at the emergency room nearest that a larger city may have.
Please note, I am an optometrist, but I’m not necessarily your optometrist. Any advice in the above blog post is not meant to be taken as personalized medical advice. Come see me or one of the great eye doctors at Prairie Vision Center for more personalized care. If you have a question for the blog to answer, please email prairievisioncenter@gmail.com or call 701-642-4090