Having pink eye can be the pits. You know you have pink eye, or Conjunctivitis, if you have pain in your eye, or both eyes, and if your eye(s) are incredibly red and itchy. Sometimes with pink eye you can also have a discharge, or crust that forms around the eyes.
You may notice redness, an irritated feeling, eyelid redness, a dryness feeling, puffy eyes, swollen lining of the eye, and discharge from the eye / watery eyes.
Sometimes patients can think that they have some other eye allergy, or even a sinus infection with watery eyes and these allergies and illnesses are not typically contagious, yet the cause of the eye symptoms and pain is conjunctivitis, or pink eye, and pink eye is extremely contagious. If you have eye redness, combined pain, you should consider seeking medical treatment just to ensure that you are not contagious and spreading pink eye to others that you are around.
Pink Eye is caused when a bacterium enters the eye area and it can be spread to others as soon as the symptoms begin to appear and for as long as you have a water, or discharge coming from the eye. If antibiotics are used to treat the pink eye, the patient is typically not contagious after being on the antibiotic treatment for 24 hours.
Diagnosing pink eye vs eye allergies can be done online. Use SmartDocMD for online doctor visits if you think you have pink eye, or need an online doctor for pink eye to prescribe pink eye drops, or some other treatment that will clear up the infection.
We also offer information on pink eye and sinus infections, answering the question, “Can you get pink eye from a sinus infection?”.
In addition to pink eye and other common eye problems such as eye allergies, SmartDocMD can treat Urinary Tract Infections, Cold/Cough symptoms, Yeast Infections and common Vaginal Problems, and Sinus Infections. Click and get started.