by Lauren Beyenhof

Created on: July 05, 2009

If you rely on television as your source of medical knowledge, then you might assume that all that is needed to treat a black eye is a good cold steak applied to the injury. In reality, there are multiple ways to care for a black eye, each depending on how severe the original blow to the face. Black eye is actually a bit of a misnomer, because it's not the eye that turns black. Rather, the region across the bridge of the nose or around the eye socket itself that becomes blackened as the result of bruising.

Most black eyes are hardly severe. Lasting for merely days, a typical black eye heals on its own. Treating the black eye involves making a cold compress to lie across the injured site. Another quick remedy for the bruising and swelling that accompany a black eye is to apply cold pressure with a bag of frozen peas or a self-activating cold pack.

A black eye that persists for more than a few days could indicate more serious injury. The darkened bruise that appears with puffiness around the eye socket could mean that there is damage to the bone.

The right type of first aid for treating a black eye involves knowing the source of the black eye. Although black eyes are, a majority of the time, the result of injury, other common causes include certain head injuries, nasal surgery, or skull fracture. Another type of black eye, the so-called allergy shiner is a result of the body's allergic response to environmental triggers.

First Aid Treatment

As it heals, the skin around the eye that had been puffy, swollen and dark, begins to take on a different appearance. The skin under the eye gets looser and starts to change color from bluish grey to greens and yellows. In this space, fluid builds up in the fatty tissue and gravity takes over making it look saggy (you know, like those bags you carry when you don't get enough sleep). Eventually the sags and bags and bruise will fade away completely. In cases where the injury was to the bridge of the nose, a person might have both eyes blackened at once. When this happens, it's not uncommon for the bruising and swelling to take longer to go away.

Since most black eyes heal without needing much more than an ice pack and some mild pain relief medications, a doctor should be consulted in cases of more severe injury. An opthamologist, for example, can properly assess the damage.

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