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By Mayo Clinic staff
If you get a foreign object in your eye:
- Wash your hands.
- Try to flush the object out of your eye with clean water or saline solution. Use an eyecup or a small, clean drinking glass positioned with its rim resting on the bone at the base of your eye socket.
To help someone else:
- Wash your hands.
- Seat the person in a well-lighted area.
- Gently examine the eye to find the object. Pull the lower lid down and ask the person to look up. Then hold the upper lid while the person looks down.
- If the object is floating in the tear film on the surface of the eye, try flushing it out with saline solution or clean, lukewarm water.
Caution
- Don't try to remove an object that's embedded in the eyeball.
- Don't rub the eye.
- Don't try to remove a large object that makes closing the eye difficult.
When to call for help
Call 911 or your local emergency number when:
- You can't remove the object.
- The object is embedded in the eyeball.
- The person with the object in the eye is experiencing abnormal vision.
- Pain, redness or the sensation of an object in the eye persists after the object is removed.
References
- When an eye injury occurs. The Foundation of the American Academy of Ophthalmology. http://www.aao.org/eyecare/treatment/eyeinjury.cfm. Accessed Nov. 5, 2009.
- Augsburger J, et al. Ocular and orbital trauma. In: Riordan-Eva P, et al. Vaughan & Asbury's General Ophthalmology. 17th ed. New York, N.Y.: McGraw-Hill; 2008. http://www.accessmedicine.com/resourceTOC.aspx?resourceID=19. Accessed Nov. 5, 2009.
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