Google searches for “sore eyes” spiked Monday afternoon, just after several U.S. communities witnessed a total solar eclipse.
Searches indicate that some people in the path of the sun were concerned that they had looked at it for too long.
Eye experts said this was a legitimate concern. Looking at the sun without protective equipment can damage your eyesight, and complaints of eye problems have been documented after past eclipse events. However, cases of long-term damage after an eclipse are not uncommon.
In addition, hurting the eyes is not the best indicator of a serious problem: injuries caused by “solar retinopathy,” when light hits the retina, occur without immediate pain.
There are two main types of possible injuries from looking at the sun: burning the outside of the eye and damage to the nerve tissue inside.
“You can get a little burn on the surface of the eye, or what we call solar keratitis,” said Dr. Daniel Lattin, an ophthalmologist at Nemours Children's Health Center in Jacksonville, Florida. “You could get some kind of burn on that cornea, and that will cause redness and tearing and those kind of symptoms. That problem should resolve on its own, within a day or two, without any kind of permanent damage.”
This type of injury is rare, and is more commonly associated with climbers who spend time at high altitudes without proper eye protection, said Dr. Russell Van Gelder, an ophthalmologist at the University of Washington Medicine and director of the Karalis Johnson Retina Center in Seattle. .
“This eclipse is very difficult to watch; you need a fair amount of exposure,” Van Gelder said.
Vision symptoms are the most likely and worth worrying about.
“If you have blind spot symptoms, wavy lines, floaters or blurry vision, it may be solar retinopathy after this eclipse, and you need to be seen right away,” said Dr. Lokshmi Hariharan, chief of ophthalmology at Dayton Children's Hospital. In Ohio.
Symptoms of solar retinopathy usually appear within 24 hours after exposure to sunlight, Hariharan said. The condition is not related to pain.
“It's not a pain sensation,” Van Gelder said. “The retina is devoid of the sensation of pain or heat. The retina cannot sense when it is injured.”
There is no cure for solar retinopathy, although some patients' eyes will recover over time, Lattin said.
Limited data suggest that long-term problems are uncommon. Only about 100 patients reported “eclipse-related retinopathy” after the 2017 total solar eclipse, according to a 2017 study. Technical report published by the American Astronomical Society. Children and youth were most vulnerable, according to the report, which based its estimates on unofficial survey data.
Van Gelder said there is no national registry that tracks such infections.
He said that after the 2017 eclipse, his clinic treated six patients in Seattle who had eye complaints. He treated two of them directly, and both were partially cured.
“If people are in pain, it's probably not a big deal,” Van Gelder said. “If they have vision problems, they should be seen.”
Experts said that damage to the eyes after looking at the sun does not take long.
“It may take up to a second or two where you are looking at it without protection if you are not using glasses,” Hariharan said. “The problem is that when it's completely obscured by the moon and it's cloudy, you think it's safe to look at, and people will stare at it longer.”
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