Millions of people have just watched the historic solar eclipse, the first to be visible from the Iberian Peninsula since 1912, and some may have inadvertently looked at the Sun without adequate protection.
Should you be worried if your eyes sting after the eclipse? What if a small spot appears in the centre of your vision? Specialists warn that not all symptoms are equally significant and that the signs of a serious injury may not appear immediately.
"There are two things we need to distinguish," explains Dr Laura Sararols to 'Euronews'. She is head of the Retina Unit at Granollers General Hospital and head of service at OMIQ in the Hospital Universitari General de Catalunya.
On the one hand, spending a long time staring at the eclipse, even when using protective glasses correctly, can make us blink less and cause dry eyes, a feeling of grit or a foreign body, and other temporary discomfort.
"This is of no consequence whatsoever", Sararols says reassuringly. It is a phenomenon similar to what can occur after many hours of intense concentration in front of a screen and, she explains, it usually disappears within a few hours and can be relieved with artificial tears.
