Corneal lacerations are extremely painful and the pain does not abate until the injury is healed or medications are used to dull the pain – if it doesn’t hurt all of the time, you probably don’t have an ulcer.
A simple test will determine if you have an ulcerated cornea. Fluorescien stain is an orange colored substance that is only taken up when there is a tear in the outermost layer of the cornea. If the cornea is intact, the stain flushes away. If there is a laceration, the stain will stick and cause a greenish discoloration. The entire test takes less than 10 seconds.
If you have a corneal ulcer, your doctor will most likely place you on two medications. One will be for the pain (probably atropine) and one will be an antibiotic. The antibiotic does not speed the healing progress, but it does prevent an opportunistic bacterial infection from creating additional (and severe) complications.