Exams and Tests

To make the diagnosis, your ophthalmologist or the physician in the hospital's emergency department will take a history, examine your eyes, and discuss recent exposure you may have had to ultraviolet light.

• Your vision, eyelids, pupils, and back of the eye are checked.

• Your ophthalmologist looks at the surface of your eyes using special equipment, such as a slit lamp, made especially for examining the eye's surface.

• A numbing eyedrop to allow your eye to be examined and a painless dye called fluorescein may be put onto your eye to aid in the examination. The stain temporarily makes your eye look yellow but goes away after a few minutes. A special blue light is then used to evaluate the stained eye to determine if corneal damage is present. A damaged cornea, coupled with a history of ultraviolet light exposure, confirms the diagnosis of radiation eye burns or corneal flash burns.