Something in Your Eye? Do Not Rub It, and Do Not Dig It Out

For a speck of metal, grit, wood or dust on the surface of the eye, an eye doctor is usually the better call. We have the slit lamp magnification, the dye and the instruments made for this, and it is what optometrists in both Washington and Oregon do routinely. Go to an emergency room instead if the object hit your eye at high speed, if you can see a cut or puncture, if the pupil looks misshapen, if there is blood inside the eye, or if vision dropped after the injury.

The most common sign is a persistent feeling that something is there, often sharpest when you blink, along with tearing, redness and light sensitivity. That feeling can also come from the scratch the object left rather than the object itself, and you cannot tell the difference from the outside. If it is still uncomfortable after rinsing, assume something is there until someone has looked.

Please do not. The cornea is about half a millimeter thick and it does not forgive a slip. Digging at a fragment can push it deeper, turn a surface problem into a partial thickness one, and introduce bacteria into a cornea that is already open. Rubbing does the same thing more slowly. Rinsing is the only home step that is safe, and it only works for loose debris.

Quickly. An iron or steel fragment starts leaving a rust ring in the cornea within about four to six hours of being lodged there, and clinical guidance is to have metallic debris removed within about 24 hours, because waiting makes the removal harder and the inflammation worse. If you got metal in your eye this morning, today is the day to be seen, not the weekend.

When iron sits in the cornea it stains the surrounding tissue with an orange-brown ring of rust. Removing the fragment does not remove the ring, and leaving rust behind keeps the eye inflamed and can slow healing, so it is polished away with a small rotating burr at the slit lamp after the eye is numb. It takes a couple of minutes.

Less than people expect. The anesthetic drop numbs the surface first, so the removal itself is usually felt as pressure rather than pain. The eye can ache and feel scratchy for a day or so afterward while the surface heals, which is the scratch healing rather than anything being wrong.

Most corneal scratches heal in about one to three days, depending on how big and how deep the scratch is. The surface layer of the cornea regenerates fast. Deeper injuries, injuries in the center of your vision, and anything that gets infected take longer and need closer follow up.

Usually yes. A break in the surface of the cornea is an open door for bacteria, so an antibiotic drop is typically used for about a week or until the surface has closed over. Our doctors will tell you which drops, how often, and what to watch for.

It does not stay harmless. A retained fragment can work its way deeper, and it raises the risk of a corneal ulcer, an infection in the cornea, inflammation inside the eye, and permanent scarring. A scar in the center of the cornea sits directly in your line of sight. Injuries involving plant matter or soil, which is a lot of what happens in this valley, carry a higher infection risk than metal or glass.

Because a fragment thrown by a hammer, a grinder or a chisel can be traveling fast enough to go through the wall of the eye rather than stopping on it. Most objects found inside eyes came from exactly that kind of work, and the frightening part is how mild it can feel: the entry wound can be tiny, the eye can look almost normal, and the pain can be manageable. If you were striking metal on metal and something hit your eye, treat it as an emergency even if it does not feel like one.

A pupil that looks oval or pulled to one side, blood inside the colored part of the eye, a visible cut in the cornea or the white of the eye, fluid weeping from the wound, a soft feeling eye, and vision loss. Any of these, or any high-speed mechanism, means the emergency room. Do not rinse it, do not try to remove anything, do not press on the eye. Tape a paper cup or an eye shield over it to keep pressure off and go.

Flush immediately with plenty of clean water or saline, for at least 15 minutes, and clinical guidance says closer to 30 minutes is better for a chemical splash. Do not stop to look things up first. Find out what the chemical was if you can, and get emergency care, because alkali splashes in particular can keep damaging tissue after the splash is over.

Most people can. We do not routinely dilate for a foreign body removal, and the numbing drop wears off in under an hour. Your eye may water and feel scratchy afterward, so if you are not comfortable driving with one eye streaming, bring someone.

No. Everyday glasses are not safety eyewear. Safety glasses look similar but the lenses and frames are built to a different standard, marked Z87 on the lens or frame, and they include side protection where there is a flying object hazard. If you wear a prescription, safety eyewear can be made in your prescription or made to fit over your glasses. The American Optometric Association estimates the right protection prevents or reduces the severity of around 90 percent of these injuries.

A foreign body removal is a medical visit, so it is normally billed to your medical insurance rather than a vision plan. Copays and deductibles depend on your plan, and our staff can check your benefits when you call. If it happened at work, tell us, because a work injury is usually handled through workers compensation and the paperwork starts on day one.

Walk-ins are welcome at all three offices, and we keep room for urgent problems like this. Calling first is still better, because we can have a room and the equipment ready for you instead of you sitting in the waiting area with a watering eye.

Our Pasco office at 4820 N Rd 68, inside Walmart, is the closest option for Pasco, Kennewick, Richland and West Richland. Call (509) 543-7953 and tell us you have something in your eye.

Our Sunnyside office at 2675 E Lincoln Ave, inside Walmart, serves Sunnyside, Grandview, Prosser, Toppenish, Zillah and Mabton. Call (509) 839-4575. Se habla espanol.

Our Hermiston office at 1350 N 1st St, inside Walmart, serves Hermiston, Umatilla, Boardman, Stanfield, Irrigon and the surrounding area, just off I-84. Call (541) 567-5283.