How quickly should treatments for pink eye work?

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Laura D. Cook
Assistant Professor of Opthalmology, University of Virginia-Department of Opthalmology
www.healthsystem.virginia.edu  
434-924-5485

The Ophthalmology Residency Training Program at the University of Virginia was separated from Otolaryngology in 1947. Since 1978, it has been under the leadership of a full-time academic faculty. The Department currently serves as the ophthalmic referral center for central and western Virginia and parts of West Virginia, North Carolina and eastern Tennessee.

How quickly should treatments for pink eye work?

Laura D. Cook, M.D., Assistant Professor of Ophthalmology at the University of Virginia School of Medicine, describes pink eye and its four common symptoms.

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Host: How quickly should treatments for a pinkeye work?

Dr. Laura D. Cook: Well, if it's a viral cause of conjunctivitis, the virus has to run its course just like a cold and normally, with a supportive treatment, it's going to take 7-10 days for it to resolve. bacterial conjunctivitis, if treated with the appropriate antibiotic should begin resolution within 24-48 hours. As a side note, even bacterial conjunctivitis is usually self limited, meaning that even without treatment, it will resolve. If it's an allergic cause of conjunctivitis, starting the eye drop, usually depending on how severe it is may take up to three weeks and then lastly, toxic, again it depends on how severe that conjunctivitis is.

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