A chemical has splashed into your eye (flush with clean water for 15 minutes on the way) · something has penetrated or is embedded in the eye · the eye injury came with a head injury · or you have sudden vision loss alongside severe headache, weakness, slurred speech or confusion.
Those need a hospital, not an eye clinic. For almost everything else below, we are faster and better equipped than an ER — emergency departments rarely have the microscopes and imaging an eye needs.
An emergency room can rule out the catastrophic. It usually cannot examine the surface of your cornea under magnification, measure your eye pressure properly, or look at your retina — which is what most urgent eye complaints actually require.
We have the slit lamp, the imaging, and the drops on hand. In most cases we can tell you what is wrong, treat it, and send you home the same visit — and if it needs a surgeon, we make that call immediately rather than after a six-hour wait.
Metal, grit, sawdust, glass. Do not rub it and do not try to dig it out — the scratch usually does more damage than the particle.
Redness with real pain, light sensitivity or discharge is not the same as irritation. It can be infection, inflammation inside the eye, or pressure.
A sudden shower of new floaters, flashes of light, or a shadow or curtain across your vision needs a dilated look at the retina today.
Blurring, dimming or loss in one eye that came on quickly — even if it has already improved.
Pain, redness or blur after sleeping in lenses or over-wearing them. Take the lenses out, keep them, and call. Corneal infections move quickly.
Sport, a fall, an elbow. Bruising around the eye can hide bleeding inside it, which is not visible without an exam.
1205 N Dearborn Street
Chicago, IL 60610
Mon & Fri 10–6 · Tue & Thu 10–7 · Sat 9–3
Directions & details
12 East First Street
Hinsdale, IL 60521
Mon & Tue 10–6 · Thu 10–7 · Fri 10–5 · Sat 9–2
Directions & details
Please call rather than walking in. A two-minute phone call tells us which location can see you soonest and means the right doctor and the right equipment are ready when you arrive.
Optometrists diagnose and treat the large majority of urgent eye problems — infections, abrasions, foreign bodies, inflammation, pressure. When something needs a surgeon, we identify it and refer the same day, usually faster than you would get there on your own.
Yes. You do not need to be an established patient for an urgent visit.
If your eye is red or painful, yes — remove them and keep them in their case rather than throwing them away. They can be useful in identifying an infection.
Your glasses, your contact lenses and solution if relevant, a list of medications, and sunglasses — you may be dilated, and driving afterwards is easier with them.
If it is one of the four situations in the red panel above, go to an emergency room now. Otherwise call us first thing and we will fit you in — but if pain or vision loss is worsening overnight, do not wait for us.
Call. We would far rather tell you it is nothing than have you sit on something that needed looking at today.
Gold Coast — 312 943 2020 Hinsdale — 630 325 2020For non-urgent visits, book an appointment or see our full range of services.
