How To Treat Yourself for Pinkeye

Pinkeye is a symptom common to several effects, including viral infections, bacterial infections or eye allergies. When your eye is exposed to one of these afflictions, then your eye becomes inflamed and a pinkish film forms on the surface of your eye.

Symptoms of pink eye are watery or itchy eyes. If you have a frequent watery discharge from them, especially in the morning, this is another symptoms. If a crust forms on your eye overnight and you wake with an eye matted, this is a sign of pink eye. A bright pink film over one or both eyes is the tell-tale symptom of pink eye.

The medical name for this condition is conjunctivitis. Because there are so many potential causes of pink eye, there isn't one simple remedy for the condition. While a bacteria can be treated with antibiotics, a viral infection cannot. Allergies, one of the most common causes, respond to certain antibiotic treatments.

So here are the treatments common to each form of pinkeye, as well as specific remedies. Because of the highly contagious nature of conjunctivitis, some of the "remedies" involve preventing the spread of pink eye. This might mean preventing it spreading from one of your eyes to the other, or from you to your family.

1. Try to determine what the cause of the infection is.

A bacterial infection might involve a green or yellowish discharge from your eye. Also, if several days pass and only one of your eyes is infected, you probably have a bacterial infection, which does not spread so easily. Fortunately, the bacterial infection can be treated with antibiotics. Typically, these are antibiotic ointments and eye drops.

2. If you have an allergic inflammation of the conjunctiva, then eye drops or a cold compress might treat the inflammation.

In more serious cases, oral antibiotics might be used, though these are usually not steroidal. There are steroid creams which are sometimes prescribed for allergy-induced pink eye. This type of pink eye is not contagious, as it is induced by a person's natural allergies. These usually occur in the spring or fall, when allergies are at their worst.

3. Viral infections are more difficult to fight.

They are also the most contagious. This condition might persist for two to three weeks. While antibiotics don't eliminate the conditions, steroid creams generally help ease the irritation. Eye drops and a cold washcloth compressed on the eye are the standard remedies for this discomfort. Many of the preventive measures below are especially important for the sufferer of viral pink eye.

4. If your eye itches, do not rub it with your hands. Wet a cloth and hold it to your eye, instead.

5. Always wash your hands after touching an eye affected with pinkeye.

A virus is highly contagious, so you can transfer it to your other eye easily. In this way, you can continue to reinfect one eye to another, prolonging your case of pink eye.

6. When you wash your eye, make certain to use a washcloth.

Do not reuse this washcloth. Put the cloth in a washing machine as quickly as possible, because the virus can be transmitted from the washcloth.

7. Wash your clothes or towels that have touched your eye or touched your hand after it touched your eye.

8. Wash your bedsheets frequently when you have pink eye.

Pillow cases which your head might rest on are particularly important. If your condition clears up and your do not wash these sheets, they will re-infect you with the virus.

9. Do not wear contacts when you have pink eye.

Not only does this irritate your eye and cause you to inadvertently rub your eyes, it also prevents the eye from fighting the infection as quickly as it would.