What are the common causes of eye pain?
Eye pain can have a variety of causes. It is typically divided into conditions that affect the cornea, conditions that affect of other parts of the eye, and conditions involving other areas of the body that cause pain to be felt in the eye area. Common causes of eye pain typically center around particular parts of the eye. These include the cornea, the white of the eye (sclera), and a thin layer that covers it called the conjunctiva. The colored part of the eye is the iris. The muscles that control the eye, the nerves, and the eyelids can also be sources of eye pain. A problem with the cornea is the most common cause of eye pain. The cornea is the outermost layer of the eye. It has a clear dome-shaped surface that covers the front of the eye. Many disorders that affect the cornea also affect the fluid-filled space between the iris and the inner part of the cornea. The cornea acts as a direct barrier keeping out dirt, germs, and other harmful or foreign partic...