Maybe something blows in your eye or a kid mistakenly pokes you in the eye. Then, possibly right now or perhaps hours later, you experience pain, the sensation that something is stuck in your eye, or tearing and redness. Chances are you have scratched your eye — a problem likewise referred to as a corneal abrasion.
What Does a Scratch on the Eye Feel Like
Corneal abrasion is a scratch or scrape on the cornea, the clear, round dome covering the eye’s iris and pupil. By helping to focus light as it enters the eye, the cornea plays a crucial role in vision. When a corneal abrasion scars the cornea, it can affect vision. Besides the problems discussed above, other corneal abrasion symptoms can consist of blurry vision, sensitivity to light and headache.
What to Do for a Scratch on the Eye
If you do scratch your eye, here are some things you ought to – and should not – do:
- DON’T rub your eye. You may be lured to do so, however rubbing your eye can make the abrasion even worse.
- Pull your upper eyelid over your lower eyelid. The lashes from your lower eyelid may have the ability to brush away any foreign item caught beneath your upper eye cover.
- Wash your eye with saline solution or clean water. If you do not have an eyecup, use a small, clean glass. Rest the rim of the glass on the bone at the base of your eye socket, listed below your lower eyelid. The water or saline solution may flush the foreign object from your eye.
- DON’T wear your contact lenses. Wearing your contact lenses will slow the recovery procedure and might cause complications.
- Blink. Blinking can assist get rid of smidgens of dust or sand in your eye.
- DON’T touch your eye with anything. Fingers, cotton bud and other objects will not assist remove the foreign things and could hurt your eye more. Bear in mind that the things that caused the scratch might be gone despite the fact that you still feel as if something is in your eye.
- Use sunglasses. If your eye is sensitive to light since of the scratch, sunglasses will reduce the symptoms while you recover.
See your eye doctor if you scratch your eye. Most corneal abrasions are minor and will recover on their own in a couple of days. Your eye doctor might treat a corneal abrasion with antibiotic eye drops or ointment or use steroid eyedrops to lower inflammation and decrease the chance of scarring. The best way to handle a scratched eye, though, is to avoid getting one in the first location. If you are going to be engaged in an activity where you risk injuring your eye, make certain you use protective glasses.