missypie

For about the last year I've had extreme eye irritation....not every day, but several times a week. I was convinced it was allergies. I went to an allergist and had the skin tests and found that I'm not allergic to much of anything. I've tried to figure out if it is my eye makeup, I've tried days without one element of it (e.g. no mascara one day, no eyeliner another) and the eye irritation occurs no matter what I do or do not wear.

It's driving me crazy and getting worse. What type of doctor would be most likely to figure out what the problem is? Opthamolagist? Dermatologist? Other?

ebeeeee

Absolutely an opthamologist. Right away.

patsmom

I have severe eye irritation from ocular rosacea and blepharitis and I used to think it was allergy-related until my eye doctor diagnosed it and gave me medication to alleviate the symptoms.

I'd visit an ophthalmologist for a complete exam. A dermatologist can't get that really closeup look at your eyelids that an ophthalmologist's instruments can get. Good luck with it. Hope you're able to get relief!

midmo

Well, this is probably pretty obvious, but just in case...do you wear contact lenses? My son has a recurrent eye problem. He went to the opthamologist at the medical center at his university, and was told to stop wearing contacts until he could get a different kind. I haven't seen the written prescription yet, but I believe he has been told to get the gas permeable kind (?).

VeryHappy

You may have something called keratoconjunctivits, which sounds worse than it is. It's extremely dry eyes. I was diagnosed with it in 1988, when I could barely see the big green signs on the turnpike. Using lots of special eye drops and some other medications has helped significantly. Now it's only a minor annoyance.

ivoryk

also consider Sjogren's Syndrome...opthamalgist should be able to diagnose. Prescription eyedrops can help. Good luck to you.

VeryHappy

Ivoryk, I've got that. Dry eyes are just one symptom.

ellemenope

Opthamologist--are extremely dry eyes becoming an epidemic?! My D had the condition so bad that she couldn't get an eye exam to get new glasses for months until her eyes could get rehydrated.

BunsenBurner

Gosh, my D has the same problem - dry eyes. She has been wearing GP contacts for 6 years now, and the problem only developed a month or so ago. D saw an opthalmologist, and he did recommend some eye drops and fish oil dietary supplements. Apparently, those omega-3 acids play an important role in making tears a bit harder to evaporate from the eye. If I had not known this doctor, I would have dismissed fish oil as another "snake oil" nonsense.

ellemenope

It must be the new contacts. My D has the soft lenses and they are so comfortable that people must wear them more than they should at one sitting.

With my old (hard) contacts, I couldn't wait to come home and take them out!

PA Mom

Definitely see an opthamologist. I had eye irritation and thought it was makeup (like you). Turns out I had a growth on my eye ( on the white part) that was causing the irritation. Once it was removed it was such a relief to not have that constant irritation ( I had photophobia as well which was a pain).
Good luck - hopefully it's an easy remedy for you!

AznPwyd

it's actually spelled ophthalmologist, everyone here except patsmom is spelling opthamologist or opthalmologist or opthamolagist lol

PA Mom

Thank you- I hadn't even realized that I was totally misspelling that word all of these years!! I have even had a lot of experience with specialists for myself and my husband and just never paid attention to the spelling- it's a good thing to learn something.

ellemenope

I get confused because it is "optometrist" and "optics".

midmo

AznP: Thanks for the spelling check. It always come up as red-lined on the spell check but I was too lazy to figure out what the problem was.