Among the various injuries sustained in a car crash, ocular trauma or eye injury is one of the most common one. Ironically, safety equipment such as air bags often play a part in inflicting trauma to the eye. But fortunately, while car crash victims often choose to ignore many other symptoms, they are likely to be more careful about seeking treatments for an eye injury. Why? Because a large part of our life depends on visual senses. Seeking help from an auto accident doctor can minimize the danger of losing the eyesight and guide car crash victims through a quick recovery process.
What Causes a Car Crash Eye Injury?
Is there anything inside the car that is specifically designed to protect your eyes? No. Even the seat belt is not designed to keep your eyes secure during accidents. Think about it, even if the sharp, heavy, and unsecured things in your car leave your eyes untouched, the air bags can deal enough blow to them to cause anything from temporary to permanent injuries during a car accident. Plus, there could be a lot of broken glass, debris, and metal fragments flying around at the moment of accident, all of which pose potential threat to your eyes. Car crash injuries can harm eyelids, cornea, orbital wall, sclera, conjunctiva, lacrimal canaliculi, and other parts. Some of the eye injuries can be identified immediately, but others might not surface right after the accident. Only a proper medical diagnosis can determine the extent of the injury and the best course of treatment.
Symptoms of Eye Injuries
Eye injuries can be external or internal. External injuries are easy to identify as they leave clues like bruises, cuts, swelling, and the likes. But, internal injuries are rarely possible to identify without proper medical training. Besides pain and swelling, the many ‘hidden’ injuries include:
- Difficulty in reading
- Problem in maintaining visual contact
- Glare sensitivity
- Double and blurred vision
- Reduced ability to comprehend
Knowing about a few eye trauma symptoms do not really make you an expert in precisely diagnosing an injury. Your eyes have neurons, muscles, tendons, and tissues that are way different than any other part of your body. So, figuring out what is causing the discomfort in or around your eye right after a car accident will take professional medical knowledge and experience.
Doing the Right Thing
Car crash injuries can damage the eye structure and its various important parts. Injuries to the retina and the optic nerve could even reduce the eyesight of car crash victims. Other than that, lacerations and blunt force trauma can inflict pain and soreness in or around the eye. In any case, reaching for medical attention seems to be the right idea to restore your eye health. There are just too many variables in a car accident for you to track and figure out if the injury to your eye is serious or not. So, it is safer to ask the medical personnel to start their diagnosis and treatment (if need be). Otherwise you may have expensive and invasive surgeries waiting for you in the future. Lack of proper care may even lead to blindness in extreme cases.
When you are dealing with something as sensitive as an eye, you need to bring in an auto accident doctor to make sure everything is okay. Being in a car accident can be disorienting, frightening, and painful. However, going back to a normal life depends on a lot of factors, including a proper post car crash care. Your eyes are precious. ‘Listen’ to them and let a doctor take a second look, even if you feel everything is fine.