Foreign Object In Your Eye? Tips and Tricks for Making Your Eyes Happy Again!
The feeling is all too familiar; you are minding your own business when, suddenly, a foreign object manages to find a home in one of your eyes. Before you can register what the object is, your eye is doing its best impersonation of Niagara Falls. With the tears comes the redness. In a matter of seconds, your eye goes from being happy to irritated and puffy.
If the waterworks isn’t able to remove the object, what do you do next? What you DO NOT do is rub your eyes. You risk scratching your cornea and causing a corneal abrasion the more you mess with them.
The first step is to wash your hands. You will most likely be touching around your eye and should avoid introducing more germs. Use antibacterial hand soap instead of hand sanitizer and make sure all soap residue has been thoroughly washed from your hands before touching around your eyes.
The next step is to try to figure out what has made its way into your eye. Once you know what is in there, you can generally decide the best way to remove it. If the object is under the eyelid, gently pull down on the skin under the bottom eyelid or up on the skin of the upper eyelid to make it visible. If the object is not visible, avoid touching your eye to feel for it.
Once you assess the irritated eye, you can cautiously attempt removing it.
Flush it
A gentle stream of water or a saline solution will often help wash the object out. Use the buddy system if you need extra help. Have your friend help flush your eye while you hold it open and tilt your head to the side. The water will help lift the object from the surface of the eye and carry it away.
Wash cloth
To use a wash cloth without causing more pain or damage to your eye, dampen the wash cloth with warm water. Avoid using water hot to the touch. Once the cloth is dampened, place it over closed eyes and allow your eyes to develop natural tears to self-wash the object away.
Seek out professional help
If the object is lodged into your eye and seems as if it will remain there with little hope of removal, it might be time to consider seeking the help of a professional. The risk of a corneal abrasion, as mentioned above, is high when you spend too much time trying to remove an object. If your eye is still irritated and in pain for a significantly longer amount of time than usual, taking a trip to the doctor’s office might be your next best step. What might be difficult for you to remove is generally a fast and simple fix for a trained professional.