When it comes to itchy, red, and burning eyes, conjunctivitis is usually the culprit. Raphael E. Rosenbaum, MD, and his team of eye care experts routinely help patients in the tri-state area find relief from all types of conjunctivitis, sometimes called pinkeye, including allergic and chronic conjunctivitis. For more information, call one of the four New York locations in the Upper East Side of Manhattan, the Borough Park neighborhood of Brooklyn, New Rochelle, and Forest Hills, or set up an appointment using the online booking tool.
Lining your eyelids and covering the whites of your eye is a membrane called the conjunctiva. When the blood vessels in this thin and sensitive tissue become inflamed, it’s called conjunctivitis, which can lead to:
Pink or red eyes
One of the more frustrating symptoms of conjunctivitis is the feeling that there’s something in your eye even when there isn’t.
Conjunctivitis is a broad term for a number of conditions that cause the same reaction, including:
This form of the condition typically accompanies a cold or flu and is temporary, but highly contagious.
This form of pinkeye is also easily passed from one person to the next and often comes on with a respiratory infection.
This type of conjunctivitis is often a chronic condition caused by irritants, such as pollen or dust mites. In this category are several types of allergic conjunctivitis, including:
At the practice of Raphael E. Rosenbaum, MD, the team handles all types of conjunctivitis, helping you find relief from the discomfort or even helping preserve your vision in more extreme cases.
Once Dr. Rosenbaum or another member of the team identifies the source of your conjunctivitis, they develop a treatment plan. With bacterial and viral conjunctivitis, a topical ointment or ophthalmic drop is usually sufficient in remedying this temporary condition.
If, however, you have chronic problems with conjunctivitis, your doctor typically turns to a mast cell stabilizer antihistamine ophthalmic eye drop. In more resistant cases, your doctor might employ a short course of topical steroids or an oral antihistamine, and in some rare cases, may even use oral steroids and immunosuppressive therapy
But these measures typically only address the symptoms of your conjunctivitis. For longer-term solutions, your doctor may recommend that you work with an allergist to desensitize your body against the irritant. And if you have giant papillary conjunctivitis, you should expect to go on a contact lens holiday.
If you’re struggling with vernal conjunctivitis or atopic keratoconjunctivitis, you may benefit from local or systemic immunosuppressive therapy.
For expert management of your conjunctivitis, call Raphael E. Rosenbaum, MD, or request an appointment at one of the four locations using the online scheduling feature.