Eye Injection in Delhi FAQs: Answers Patients Actually Want

A patient guide from Claritas Eye and Retina Delhi, prepared with Dr Mayank Bansal

1. Is an eye injection painful?

Almost everyone asks this first, and it's fair enough. In reality, most people feel pressure more than pain — a brief push against the eye rather than a sharp sting. That's because the eye is numbed beforehand with anesthetic drops or gel, so by the time the needle goes in, the surface has little to no sensation left. The whole thing is over in a couple of seconds.

Afterward, it's normal to feel a mild ache or a gritty sensation for the rest of the day. A regular over-the-counter painkiller is usually enough if it bothers you.

2. How long does the procedure itself take?

AT Claritas Eye and Retina Delhi, from start to finish — cleaning the eye, numbing it, giving the injection, and a brief check afterward — you're usually in and out within 10 minutes. There's no general anesthesia, no hospital stays; you walk in and walk out the same day. It's worth arranging a ride home though, since vision can stay blurry for a few hours.

3. Do I need to rest after getting an eye injection?

Not really — no bed rest required. A few sensible precautions for the rest of the day and the next couple of days go a long way, though:

• Try not to rub the injected eye, especially since it's still numb and easy to accidentally scratch.

• Skip eye makeup for a week at least.

• Keep the eye away from the pool or open water for a couple of days.

• If you wear contact lenses, leave them out for 1 week.

• Don't get behind the wheel right after — wait until your vision has cleared, which is usually within a few hours, but can occasionally take longer.

• Keep using any other eye drops your doctor already has you on.

4. What side effects should I expect?

Nothing alarming, usually — and most of it settles within a day or two on its own:

• The white of the eye looking red or bloodshot (this can look more dramatic than it feels, and is nothing to worry about)

• A watery, gritty, or slightly irritated eye

• Floaters, small dots, or shadows drifting across your vision

• A mild ache or heaviness in the eye

• Occasionally, a small patch of bleeding on the white of the eye (subconjunctival hemorrhage), which resolves on its own within a week or so

Genuinely serious complications — an infection inside the eye or a retinal detachment are rare. That said, if pain gets worse instead of better, your vision drops suddenly, redness increases, or light starts to bother you in the days following the injection, call your retina specialist right away. It doesn't happen often, but it's worth acting on quickly when it does.

5. How soon does the injection start working?

Anti-VEGF injections — the class of medicine used for wet macular degeneration, diabetic macular edema, and vein occlusions begin acting within days of being given, gradually calming the leaky blood vessels responsible for the problem. On follow-up scans, many patients show the fluid drying up within 1 to 4 weeks. Vision itself is a little less predictable: some people notice things looking clearer almost right away, while others need a few sessions before the improvement becomes noticeable. Your doctor will track your progress with OCT scans and vision checks at each visit.

6. How long does the effect of the injection actually stay in the eye and body?

The medicine doesn't just vanish once you leave the clinic, it keeps quietly working inside the eye for weeks afterward. When researchers have measured levels inside the human eye, they've found it clears out gradually, taking roughly 5 to 10 days for the concentration to drop by half. Put simply, that means the drug is still actively controlling those leaky vessels for somewhere around 4 to 6 weeks after just one injection — and that's a big part of why the injections in the initial phase are typically spaced about a month apart.

As for the rest of your body, only a tiny trace amount ever escapes into the bloodstream. The treatment is built to stay local, doing its job inside the eye rather than travelling elsewhere.

7. What happens if I don't get the injection after my doctor has advised it?

This is an important question, and an honest answer matters. If your retina specialist has recommended an injection, it's because your scans or examination have shown active disease — abnormal blood vessels that are leaking, or fluid building up under the retina. Delaying or skipping the injection allows that process to continue unchecked in the meantime. The abnormal vessels don't wait; they keep leaking, and the fluid or bleeding under the retina can increase.

Depending on how long the delay is and how active the disease was to begin with, this can mean the fluid gets worse, vision that could have been preserved or improved starts to decline instead, and in some cases the damage becomes harder to reverse once it's happened, especially if scarring develops. The longer the gap between the advised injection and when it's actually given, the harder it can be to get vision back to where it was.

This doesn't mean every delay is a disaster — a short, unavoidable delay of a few days is different from skipping the injection altogether. But if you're hesitant or finding it difficult to keep to the recommended timing, for any reason at all, it's always best to talk to your doctor rather than simply not showing up. There are often ways to make the schedule more workable without putting your vision at risk.

8. Do I need antibiotic drops before the injection, and why?

Yes — we advise putting in an antibiotic drop on the same morning as your injection, once or twice, purely as a precaution. Since the needle has to pass through the front part of the eye on its way to the back, this drop helps cut down the bacteria sitting on the surface and in that anterior chamber before the procedure even begins, adding one more layer of protection against infection.

This works alongside — not in place of — the main safeguard, which is a povidone-iodine antiseptic wash applied to the eye's surface right before the injection, plus sterile technique throughout. Your doctor's team will tell you exactly which drop to use and when, so it's timed properly before you arrive.

9. Is a "loading dose" of three injections mandatory, or only given when needed?

In a few specific cases — most notably wet (neovascular) macular degeneration — we do start with a fixed loading course of three-monthly injections, because this disease tends to respond best when the abnormal vessels are brought under control firmly and consistently right from the start.

Outside of that, treatment is largely pro re nata (PRN) — given as needed, rather than on a fixed count. Whether a loading dose is used at all, and how many injections it runs to, comes down to your specific diagnosis, what the repeat scans show, how the eye is recovering between visits, and your doctor's judgment on how you're responding. So, it isn't a one-size-fits-all rule — it's a decision made for your particular case and revisited at each visit.

10. Can both eyes be injected on the same day?

No — if both eyes need treatment, they're not injected on the same day. We usually leave a gap of about 1 to 3 days between the two, treating one eye first and the other shortly after. This gives enough of a window to watch how the first eye responds before going ahead with the second, rather than treating both at once.

11. How many injections will I need in total?

There's no fixed number — it depends entirely on how your eye responds. Some patients need only a handful of injections before their disease stabilizes and treatment intervals can be stretched out; others with more persistent disease need injections on a regular, ongoing basis for years. Regular monitoring with OCT scans allows your doctor to adjust the frequency over time, aiming for the longest safe gap between injections.

12. When should I call the doctor after an injection?

Mild redness, grittiness, and floaters are expected and don't need a call. But contact your retina specialist promptly if you notice:

• Increasing pain (rather than the mild ache settling down)

• A sudden or significant drop in vision

• Increasing redness compared to right after the injection

• New sensitivity to light

• Flashes of light or a curtain-like shadow in your vision

These are uncommon but are worth same-day evaluation.

One last thing

Eye injections tend to sound far scarier before the first one than they actually turn out to be — most patients say exactly that afterward. If anything, here raises a question specific to your own eyes, your diagnosis, or your treatment plan, that's a conversation for Dr Mayank Bansal and the team at Claritas Eye and Retina.