Emergency Eye Care
in San Diego

A foreign object is anything in your eye that doesn’t belong there. While getting hair or dust in your eye is normal and not usually an emergency, any foreign object can potentially scratch the cornea and cause an infection. An infection requires medical treatment. 

Larger, sharper objects pose more of a risk to your eye health. These objects can puncture and penetrate the eye and need a medical professional to remove them. Prompt diagnosis and treatment can prevent vision loss. 

If a large foreign object is stuck in your eye: 

• Do not rub the eye.

• Restrict eye movement.
• Bandage the eye using a clean cloth or gauze.
• If the object is too large to allow for a bandage, cover the eye with a paper cup.
• Cover the uninjured eye to help prevent eye movement in the affected eye.
• Call us immediately.

Sudden vision loss includes any amount of vision loss experienced in a few minutes to a couple of days. Vision loss is always considered an emergency and is generally caused by 3 different reasons: 

• Clouding of normally transparent eye structures
• Abnormalities of the retina
• Abnormalities of the optic nerve and the visual pathways

If you experience any degree of sudden vision loss, please call us immediately. We’ll need to examine your eyes to know exactly what’s causing it.

A blunt eye injury can occur when you are struck in the face or eye. This type of injury can damage your eyelid, eye, and the thin bones behind your eye.

Blunt trauma can cause:

• Bruising and swelling (black eye)
• Cuts to the eyelid or skin around the eye
• Cuts or scratches on the cornea
• Blood in the whites of the eye
• Retinal detachment
• Globe rupture

Even if your injury looks minor, there can be significant internal damage that only an eye exam can reveal. Call us immediately if you or a loved one has sustained blunt force trauma to the face or eye.