Protect Your Vision with Advanced Treatment for Eye Injuries in the Sacramento Region

The structure of your face and eyes help protect the eyes from injury. It’s usually fairly hard to injure the eyeball itself. Many times, injury occurs to structures around the eyeball, including the skin, eyelids, and bone. However, it is possible to damage the eyeball. Such injuries can be serious. Eye injuries generally require medical attention.

If you’re looking for the closest emergency room to treat an eye injury in Sacramento, CA or a surrounding area, Dignity Health hospitals of Greater Sacramento provide expert emergency services for immediate treatment. If you have an eye injury, call 911 or visit your closest emergency room as soon as possible. You can also use InQuicker™, our online waiting service, to select your estimated arrival time at one of our locations.

Causes of Eye Injury

Causes of eye injury include blunt trauma, sharp or puncturing trauma, high-energy particle injuries, scratches, thermal burns, and chemical splashes.

Symptoms of Eye Injury

Signs and symptoms that should prompt you to seek medical care include:

• Vision changes or trouble seeing
• Unusual size or shape of the pupil
• Torn or cut eyelid
• Pain, redness, and eye watering
• One eye sticking out farther than the other
• A lot of swelling of the eyelids and areas around the eye
• Foreign object in the eye or under the eyelid that won’t flush out
• Eyes that do not move together as they should
• Blood in the clear part of the eye

Signs of a serious eye injury don’t always appear right away. A simple, superficial eye injury may hide a more serious problem inside the eye. Visit a state-of-the-art Dignity Health emergency room if you’d like to have an assessment of an eye injury in the Greater Sacramento area.

Treatment of Eye Injuries at Dignity Health

Our recommendations for treatment and prevention depend on the specific type of eye injury. Ideally, you should see an ophthalmologist for a specialist’s evaluation and treatment. If this is not possible, find emergency or urgent care. In the meantime, keep these tips in mind:

• Flush the eye for chemical exposures and small debris in the eye.
• Do not try to remove an embedded object.
• Do not touch or rub the eye.
• Do not flush the eye if the eyeball is cut or punctured. Instead, place something over the eye to shield it.
• Do not apply pressure to the eye.
• Do not apply ointment or any other medication to the eye.
• Apply a cold compress, but not pressure, for a blow to the eye.

You can prevent eye injuries by always wearing protective eyewear during risky activities. This includes activities such as yard work, carpentry, industrial and construction occupations, and sports.