How to get foreign bodies out of your eyes
Nov 02, 2007
You are alone and something falls in your eye; your hankie is dirty and so are your fingers. <br>What would you do?
By Jacobs Odongo
You are alone and something falls in your eye; your hankie is dirty and so are your fingers.
What would you do?
Most people use a piece of grass picked from the roadside.
But the roadside? What of the dust, urine of passersby or sewage?
A teacher once gave us an age old trick which has proved successful.
You hold the eyelids of the affected eye wide open and then massage the unaffected eye in a way that makes the eyeball roll. Slowly, the foreign object will be pushed to the side and ultimately out of the eye.
But Dr. Suresh, an optometrist at City Optics and Contact Lens Centre, Pioneer Mall, explains that while massaging the eye rotates the eyeball, it would be by chance if the foreign body was forced out.
“The eye has an automatic mechanism of washing out foreign bodies,†Suresh said.
He says if you feel something in your eye, blink a few times to see if it will come out on its own.
You can also remove it with water. After washing your hands, use a mirror to locate the object and, holding your eyelids wide, rinse the eye with clean water.
However, if the foreign body is embedded in the eye tissue, seek medical attention immediately.
When blinking fails to remove the particle and there is a lot of pain, attempting to remove it yourself becomes dangerous and could result in a permanent scar that could affect your vision.
Do not rub the eye because the foreign body may become more deeply embedded.
You are alone and something falls in your eye; your hankie is dirty and so are your fingers.
What would you do?
Most people use a piece of grass picked from the roadside.
But the roadside? What of the dust, urine of passersby or sewage?
A teacher once gave us an age old trick which has proved successful.
You hold the eyelids of the affected eye wide open and then massage the unaffected eye in a way that makes the eyeball roll. Slowly, the foreign object will be pushed to the side and ultimately out of the eye.
But Dr. Suresh, an optometrist at City Optics and Contact Lens Centre, Pioneer Mall, explains that while massaging the eye rotates the eyeball, it would be by chance if the foreign body was forced out.
“The eye has an automatic mechanism of washing out foreign bodies,†Suresh said.
He says if you feel something in your eye, blink a few times to see if it will come out on its own.
You can also remove it with water. After washing your hands, use a mirror to locate the object and, holding your eyelids wide, rinse the eye with clean water.
However, if the foreign body is embedded in the eye tissue, seek medical attention immediately.
When blinking fails to remove the particle and there is a lot of pain, attempting to remove it yourself becomes dangerous and could result in a permanent scar that could affect your vision.
Do not rub the eye because the foreign body may become more deeply embedded.