For most eye emergencies an optometrist is the faster and better equipped first call, not the hospital. Dr. J.C. Mungar keeps appointment slots open for urgent cases and will usually see you the same day.
These need a hospital, not an optometrist. Do not wait to phone us first.
Oakville Trafalgar Memorial Hospital is at 3001 Hospital Gate. In an emergency, call 911.
Emergency departments are built for life threatening problems, and they are very good at those. Eyes are a different matter. A general ER rarely has a slit lamp, which is the microscope an optometrist uses to examine the surface of the eye under magnification, and it almost never has retinal imaging.
The practical consequence is that people spend hours waiting to be examined with equipment that cannot see the thing causing the problem, and are then referred on anyway. For most eye emergencies you will be assessed faster, more accurately and more comfortably at an optometry clinic.
Dr. Mungar also holds therapeutics certification, so infections and inflammation can be treated here with prescription medication rather than referred elsewhere. If your problem does need a surgical ophthalmologist, he will arrange that immediately and you will not be left to organise it yourself. More on his background and the full range of services.
If any of the following describes your situation, call the clinic and we will make room for you.
A sudden increase in floaters, flashes of light in your peripheral vision, or a shadow moving across your sight can indicate a retinal tear or detachment. These are painless, which is exactly why they get ignored. A detachment treated early usually has a good outcome, and one left for a week often does not. Call the same day.
A few things genuinely change the outcome, and a couple of instincts make it worse.
Do not rub the eye It is the strongest instinct and the most damaging one. Rubbing drags a foreign body across the cornea and can turn a superficial scratch into a deep abrasion.
Do not try to remove anything embedded If something is stuck in the eye rather than sitting loose on the surface, leave it alone and get seen. Do not use tweezers, cotton buds or a cloth.
Chemical splash, rinse first and call second Flush with clean cool water for a full 15 to 20 minutes before doing anything else, holding the lids open. Time matters more than getting to a clinic quickly.
Take contact lenses out if you safely can Unless the eye is injured or the lens will not move easily, remove it. If it is stuck or the eye is painful, leave it and tell us when you call.
Do not patch or tape the eye shut Covering an eye with a pad traps bacteria against an already damaged surface. Sunglasses for light sensitivity are fine.
Bring your health card and medication list Urgent eye care is medically necessary and therefore covered by OHIP. Bring your glasses or lens details too if the problem relates to them.
Shorter and more focused than a routine eye exam. The aim is to identify what is wrong and start treating it, not to check your prescription.
When it started, what you were doing, whether anything struck the eye, and what makes it better or worse. This narrows things quickly.
A quick assessment of how much vision is affected, which is both a diagnostic clue and the baseline for judging whether treatment is working.
Slit lamp assessment under magnification, sometimes with a dye that highlights surface damage, and retinal imaging where flashes or floaters are involved.
Foreign body removal, prescription drops, or immediate referral to a surgical ophthalmologist. You leave knowing what it is and what happens next.
Go straight to an emergency department or call 911 for sudden complete vision loss, a penetrating injury or anything embedded in the eye, severe pain after a blow to the eye or head, significant facial trauma, or a chemical splash still causing pain after 20 minutes of rinsing.
Also go directly if vision loss comes with weakness, slurred speech or a facial droop, since that may indicate a stroke. For almost everything else, phone the clinic first.
Usually, yes. We hold appointment slots for urgent cases specifically so that genuine emergencies are not waiting behind routine bookings.
Please call rather than booking online. Online booking cannot tell us how urgent your situation is, and an urgent problem sitting in a routine slot three weeks out helps nobody.
Yes. Urgent and medically necessary eye care is covered by OHIP at any age, regardless of whether your routine exams are. That includes injury, infection, foreign bodies and sudden changes in vision.
Bring your health card. There is nothing to pay for a covered urgent visit.
Yes, and it is the one we most want people to call about. A sudden increase in floaters, flashes in your peripheral vision, or a shadow moving across your sight can indicate a retinal tear or detachment.
It is entirely painless, which is why it gets left. Treated early the outcome is usually good. Left for a week it often is not. Call the same day.
If it is loose grit or an eyelash, blinking and rinsing with clean water or saline may clear it. If it does not shift, stop. Do not use tweezers, cotton buds or a cloth.
Anything embedded, and metal in particular, needs removing under magnification. Metal also leaves a rust ring on the cornea that has to be removed properly to avoid scarring.
Yes. Conjunctivitis can be bacterial, viral or allergic, and the treatment differs completely between them. Guessing wrong wastes a week and can make it worse.
Dr. Mungar holds therapeutics certification, so where antibiotic or anti inflammatory drops are appropriate he can prescribe them directly rather than sending you elsewhere.
We are open Monday to Thursday 8am to 4pm and Friday 8am to 1pm. If something happens outside those hours and it falls into the go to hospital list above, go to hospital.
If it can safely wait, call first thing when we open and we will fit you in. If you are unsure whether it can wait, treat it as though it cannot.
No. Urgent appointments are available to anyone, whether you have been seen here before or not, and no referral is required. Patients from across Oakville, Bronte and South Mississauga are welcome.
Phone rather than booking online so we know how urgent it is. No referral needed, urgent care is covered by OHIP, and you do not need to be an existing patient. Find the clinic.
