The Worst Things You Can Do When Something is in Your Eye

Everyone gets something in their eye once in a while, but what you do afterward makes all the difference. If you take the wrong steps, you can worsen the situation or even damage your eye. Your eye doctor in Pittsburgh, PA, wants you to know the worst things you can do when something is in your eye so you don’t make these mistakes.

Rubbing the Eye
Your instinct may be to rub your eye, but doing so can scratch your cornea. The cornea is the outermost layer of the eye. If the foreign object is abrasive, you’d be rubbing that material against your delicate cornea, and you don’t want to do that.

Using Tools to Extract the Object
The last thing you should do is use tweezers or other sharp objects to try to “grab” the object to remove it. This can damage your eye and possibly even cause vision loss.

Rinsing With Tap Water
Cupping water in your clean hand and rinsing the eye is a good idea, but only if you use distilled water. Tap water, drinking water, and even purified water could contain bacteria, microbes, and other things that could infect your eye. If you don’t have distilled water, you can use saline solution, which is commonly used for contact lenses.

Pulling at It
If the object is long and you can grab one end of it, you still don’t want to do that. Instead, head straight to your eye doctor’s office. Otherwise, you risk severely damaging your eye.

If you have something in your eye, you should contact your eye doctor for emergency eye services in Pittsburgh, PA. Contact us today for help or to get your questions answered.