Doctors and teachers once recommended to children that the eyes should not be crinkled with the hands but rather with the elbows, to emphasize the concept that theeye should be protected from external irritants, foreign bodies, and infection.
Itchy eyes, or even burning, or both can be caused by multiple factors:
- chemical factors, when irritants manage to enter the eye, such as shampoo, such as hair dyes, as soaps or products used for household cleaning.
- Allergic factors, such as sensitivity to pollutants or dust in the environment.
- Influenza factors and colds, but also from some more specific diseases that should be investigated with the help of the ophthalmology specialist.
Major eye diseases include: viral conjunctivitis, bacterial conjunctivitis, dry eye syndrome, blepharitis, raisins, and others caused by various seasonal allergies such as pollen, grasses, etc..
Major culprits of itching can be: animal hair, including pet hair, some molds, foreign bodies such as soil dust.
Relief may come from immediately flushing the eyes with a saline solution, then continuing treatment with antihistamine-based ointments or antibiotic-based eye drops.
