Halloween Eye Injuries Should Be Seen by an Eye Doctor: Craig See, MD

Craig See, MD, a cornea specialist for the Cole Eye Institute at Cleveland Clinic, emphasized that cornea injuries are possible during annual trick-or-treating, as debris getting into the eye can cause significant injury. Going to the eye doctor if pain does not resolve within a day is vital to diagnose the injury properly, he said.

This transcript has been lightly edited for clarity; captions are auto-generated.

Transcript

What should everyone keep in mind, even the day after Halloween, when it comes to eye health?

An injury, like getting a scratch on your cornea, is a pretty common injury, and it's the kind of injury that, especially if you were to get a scratch on your eye on Halloween, if it's not feeling 100% normal by the next day, you should go in and see somebody. Because a lot of these things we're talking about may just cause a small scratch, and a lot of times, that may heal up on its own, most of the time it does. But the problem is, some of that time when you get a scratch, you also get bacteria in there. You could get an infection. The main problem we see with infections and problems with the eye is people waiting on it too long.

Just for most people, they try to call an ophthalmologist office, or an eye doctor near them, as opposed to going to the emergency room. The emergency room can help with some things, but I would go in the emergency room if it's in the middle of the night and you're having a problem. But if it's the next day, it's the middle of the day, you're going to save time by going into the eye doctor's office. Because if you go into the [emergency room], they may just call the eye doctor, and the eye doctor may just go out over there after they finish up with their day's work, depending on the situation with that hospital. That would just be a general tip if you think you've got a problem with your eye

Things that tend to scratch eyes are cardboard boxes when people pick those up, kids’ fingernails, and then stuff that blows around, whether it can be falling while you're working on something. If you're working under a car, you can get some debris in there. Or a windy day, stuff can blow in your eye; people doing yard work. Those are things we see all the time, and it's all about just treating that early. We don't want to let that sit too long. If you were to get a scratch in your eye, it would usually feel like there's something in there. It may be sharp, it may water, you may not be able to open it, it may be very sensitive. Those are all signs that you may have a scratch on your cornea.