Also known as conjunctivitis, pink eye is an inflammation or infection of the inner lining of your eyelids. Often the underlying cause is a bacterial or viral infection, but sometimes the cause can be an allergic reaction. The condition can also happen to babies under certain circumstances. It’s best to have pink eye addressed right away, as it can be very contagious, and treatment is easy anyways!

If you believe you may have pink eye, then you’ll likely have the following symptoms (one or both eyes can be affected):

• Some discharge from your eyes which crusts (this tends to form at night)
• A feeling of grittiness in your eyes
• Redness in your eyes
• Teariness of the eyes
• Itchiness of the eyes

Treating pink eye is something urgent care can do easily. It may be important to go to urgent care if your symptoms are due to contact lens use.

If you’re wearing contact lenses and having symptoms, or if you believe your symptoms were caused by using contact lenses, take the contacts out, and if your symptoms don’t go away in under 12 to 24 hours, go to urgent care. A doctor there will make sure there isn’t any kind of serious problem at all. You should consider going to urgent care regardless of what caused your symptoms, as urgent care can relieve them right away and help to prevent the condition from spreading.

An urgent care clinic like PACS Urgent Care is a great place to go for pink eye treatment. This is because an appointment is never necessary for this kind of care, and urgent care is open for you 7 days a week. Also, urgent care doctors can handle pink eye easily.

In some cases, like with allergic conjunctivitis, a prescription will help. In this particular case, an antihistamine or decongestant will help with pink eye. In other cases, an antibiotic eye drop treatment will work, but sometimes the only treatment is one that relieves symptoms. When symptom relief is the way to go, artificial tears or a cold/warm compress will work.

It’s best to avoid contact lens use, if applicable, during the period of treatment and recovery. It might be necessary for you to disinfect or dispose of your current lenses or even your lens case. We can advise you about this at our clinic. If you believe eye makeup caused your symptoms, then you might need to replace it. Again, we can advise you.

Pink eye is treated pretty easily, but it does have different causes, so professional diagnosis and treatment is best. We provide these services at our clinic, and they’re available without the need for an appointment!

The PACS Urgent Care Ruther Glen, and Alexandria, VA clinic is open for you and your loved ones 7 days a week, Monday to Sunday, 8 am to 7 pm. You’re welcome to give us a call, but if pink eye is the issue, you should consider coming in to see us right away. Just drop by our clinic, no appointment necessary, and we’ll treat you right away! We look forward to seeing you soon here at PACS Urgent Care Ruther Glen, and Alexandria, VA! For more information, call us or online check-in today. We have convenient locations to serve you in Alexandria VA, and Ruther Glen VA! We serve patients from Alexandria VA, Huntington VA, Arlington VA, Ruther Glen VA, Bagdad VA, Athens VA, Doswell VA, and surrounding areas.