Treatment

If the object is on your cornea, you need to see a doctor immediately. Wash your hands and look in your eye. If you find any of the following, put a patch over your eye (without putting pressure on your eyeball) and seek help right away:

• A piece of glass or metal anywhere in your eye
• An object that is stuck or embedded in your eye
• An object floating anywhere in your eye that you cannot remove
• An object on the cornea of the eye

Prevention

Most eye injuries are preventable. Use common sense and take a few precautions when there is potential for eye injury:

• Wear protective eyewear when doing work such as scraping, painting, welding, sawing, or any task that produces flying particles.
• Use caution around aerosol sprays or solvents that may spray or splash in the eye.
• Use BB guns and air rifles with caution. They shoot objects that can easily penetrate the eye.

Self-Care

If the object is on the white part of your eye, try self-care. There are several different methods you can try for removing a foreign object from the white part of your eye:

• Wash the eye with water dropped from an eyedropper or squeeze bottle. The object may loosen and flow out of the eye with the water. Use saline instead of water if it’s available. It’s more comfortable and less irritating to the eye.
• Fill a sink or other large, open container with lukewarm water. Hold your breath and plunge your face into the water with your eyes open. Roll your eye and move your head around until the object floats away. (Don’t try this with young children who don’t know how to hold their breath.)
• Roll the corner of a clean handkerchief, tissue, paper towel, or other clean cloth to a point and gently push the object out of the eye with the cloth.
• If the object feels like it’s stuck on the inside of the upper lid, pull the lid out and down over the lower lashes, and hold for a few seconds. This may help dislodge the object. You can remove the object with a moistened cotton swab if you take care to avoid brushing the cornea.
• The following technique works best when someone else helps you. Look up and pull the lower lid down while your helper looks under the lower lid. Then look down at your shoes and pull the upper lid up by the lashes while your helper looks under the upper lid. A cotton swab can help you grasp the upper lid. Never insert a toothpick, matchstick, tweezers, or other hard object into the eye itself to remove an object.
• Don’t wear contacts until the irritation goes away.