Winter is just around the corner. The chill is increasing in the air, the leaves are letting go of the comfort of the trees, there’s an invigorating freshness all around. You’re inspired to go for a walk in your neighborhood park. A cool gust of wind blows in your face.
Suddenly you feel an irritation in your eye. However hard you rub your eye, you can’t seem to get rid of the feeling that something is stuck in the eye.
Seems like such an innocuous situation right? It could happen to anyone and rubbing your eyes would be such a normal response. But this could be the worst thing that you could do, say eye specialists. Here’s how to deal with any foreign body in the eye.
Whenever you feel that something is stuck in your eye, blink a few times to see if the particle comes out on its own. If blinking a few times does not cause the object to come out, you can follow the below tips to help remove the foreign body in eye:
- Examine the eye: Wash your hands thoroughly and gently pull the lower eyelid down. In a mirror, examine the region of the lower eye. It’s better if you can get a friend to help you with this. Repeat the same thing to examine the upper region while pulling up the upper eyelid.
- Rinse with water: Fill a clean cup with plain water. Hold the lower rim of the cup against your face, just below the eye. Pour a steady stream of water directly into your eye to dislodge the foreign body.
- Keep your eyes closed gently. There is a danger of causing more irritation and injury to cornea due to excessive blinking.
- Rubbing one’s eyes can cause the foreign body in eye to get deeply embedded in the eye and injure the cornea even further. Hence one should strictly avoid rubbing one’s eyes.
- Avoid attempting to remove a foreign object that is embedded in the eye. Eye specialists have the skill and special delicate instruments to aid in foreign body removal. Hence see an ophthalmologist at the earliest.
