If your eye hurts, the first step is figuring out whether the pain is on the surface (gritty, stinging, scratchy) or deeper inside (aching, throbbing, pressure). Surface pain usually points to something minor like a scratch, dry eyes, or a stye. Deep pain can signal something more serious. Most eye pain resolves on its own or with simple home care, but certain combinations of symptoms require urgent attention.
Check for Red Flags First
Before anything else, rule out an emergency. You need immediate medical care if your eye pain comes with any of the following: sudden vision changes, nausea or vomiting, seeing halos around lights, severe sensitivity to light, blood or pus from the eye, trouble moving your eye or keeping it open, or swelling in or around the eye. A chemical splash or foreign object stuck in the eye also counts as an emergency.
One particularly dangerous condition is acute angle-closure glaucoma, which causes intense eye pain, nausea, and halos around lights. The affected eye typically looks red, the cornea appears cloudy, and the pupil is dilated and doesn’t react to light. This is a medical emergency that can cause permanent vision loss within hours if untreated.
Common Causes of Surface Eye Pain
Corneal Abrasion (Scratched Eye)
A scratch on the surface of your eye is one of the most common causes of sudden eye pain. It can happen from a fingernail, a contact lens, dust, or even rubbing your eyes too hard. The pain is sharp and often feels worse when you blink. Your eye will likely water a lot and feel sensitive to light.
The good news: minor corneal abrasions heal within 24 to 48 hours because the cells on the eye’s surface reproduce very quickly. Larger scratches take longer but still typically resolve within a few days. A doctor will usually prescribe antibiotic drops or ointment to prevent infection while the scratch heals. If symptoms persist beyond three days, follow up with your provider.
Stye
A stye is a red, painful bump on or near the eyelid caused by a blocked oil gland. It looks and feels like a small pimple. The best home treatment is a warm compress applied for 5 minutes at a time, two to four times per day. Use a clean washcloth soaked in warm water. Don’t squeeze or pop the stye. Most resolve on their own within a week or two.
Dry Eyes
Dry eye pain feels gritty, sandy, or burning. It’s often worse after long stretches of screen time, in air-conditioned rooms, or on windy days. Over-the-counter artificial tears can provide relief. If you use them more than four times a day, choose preservative-free drops to avoid irritation.
Conjunctivitis (Pink Eye)
Pink eye causes redness, itching, burning, and a watery or sticky discharge. It affects the surface of the eye and usually doesn’t cause deep pain. Viral pink eye clears on its own in one to two weeks. Bacterial pink eye produces thicker, yellow-green discharge and responds to antibiotic drops. If you have significant discomfort but no discharge at all, that’s actually a warning sign that something deeper may be going on.
Causes of Deep Eye Pain
Deep, aching pain inside or behind the eye is different from surface irritation, and the causes tend to be more serious.
Uveitis is inflammation of the inner structures of the eye. It causes deep pain, light sensitivity, and blurred vision, usually without discharge. The redness concentrates around the iris rather than spreading across the white of the eye. Unlike pink eye, uveitis requires prescription treatment to prevent lasting damage to your vision.
Sinus infections and migraines can also cause pain that feels like it’s coming from the eye. Sinus pain typically worsens when you bend forward and comes with congestion. Migraine-related eye pain is usually one-sided and accompanied by throbbing, light sensitivity, or nausea.
Contact Lens Wearers Face Extra Risks
If you wear contact lenses and your eye hurts, remove them immediately. Contact lenses can trap bacteria against the cornea and cause bacterial keratitis, a serious infection. Symptoms include pain, redness, blurred vision, light sensitivity, excessive tearing, and discharge. This infection can scar your cornea and permanently affect your vision if not treated promptly with prescription drops.
Never sleep in contacts that aren’t designed for overnight wear, and don’t swim or shower in them. These are the most common ways contact lens infections start. If your eye still hurts after removing your lenses, see an eye care provider within 24 hours.
What to Do Right Now
For mild, surface-level pain with no vision changes, start with these steps:
- Stop rubbing your eye. Rubbing can worsen a scratch or push debris deeper.
- Rinse with clean water or saline. If something got in your eye, gentle flushing can wash it out. Blink several times while rinsing.
- Remove contact lenses and switch to glasses until the pain resolves.
- Use artificial tears for dryness or mild irritation.
- Apply a warm compress for stye-related pain (5 minutes, two to four times daily).
- Avoid wearing eye makeup until the pain clears.
For chemical splashes, flush your eye immediately with any clean, non-caustic fluid you have available: tap water, bottled water, or saline. Keep flushing continuously while someone arranges transport to an emergency room. Don’t wait to find a “perfect” rinsing solution. Speed matters more than the type of liquid.
How Quickly You Should Be Seen
Ophthalmology triage guidelines break eye pain into clear timelines based on your symptoms. Severe pain, vision loss, light sensitivity so bad you can’t open your eye, or systemic symptoms like nausea and vomiting all warrant being seen immediately. If the pain came on suddenly within the last few days, you should be seen within 24 hours. Pain that’s been building over a few weeks can typically wait up to a week for an appointment. Chronic, mild discomfort lasting many months falls into the routine category.
The practical takeaway: new eye pain that started in the last day or two, especially if it’s getting worse rather than better, is worth a same-day or next-day call to an eye care provider. You don’t necessarily need an emergency room for every sore eye, but you do need one if any of those red flag symptoms from the top of this article are present.