How can you tell if you scratched you cornea or if you simply have something stuck in your eye?
My left eye has been in serious pain since I woke up. I spent at least the last half hour probing around my eye to see if I could get anything out of it. Looking in a magnifying mirror, I could not see anything.
Then I started to wonder if I had scratched my cornea somehow. Is there a visible mark when that happens?
Anyone have any other ideas as to what’s wrong with my eye?
(It hurts the most when I blink, if that helps).
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7 Answers
When scratched my corea while using my chain saw, the scratch was not visible. I went to the ophthalmologist who put a dye in my eye and then looled for the scratch under UV light. It showed up quite nicely. Even I could see it.
I just covered it and had to wait a couple of days for it to heal over.
How could something that small hurt so bad?
@worriedguy is correct, the doc needs to put in some fluorescent dye and look at it with a woods lamp.
Thanks for the responses, guys.
I must have scratched it while putting on mascara, which is a lot less impressive than a chainsaw. XD
It might not be a scratched cornea though. My friend got one of those micro-scrubber beads in her eye from her face-wash, and it wouldn’t come out for a whole day. It didn’t flush out til the next morning. Either way, it just seems to be a waiting game, so just take comfort in knowing it’ll go away on its own soon!
I gave myself a pretty good scratch in the most horrendously mundane ways possible: I fell asleep with a extended-wear contacts in. You know, the ones you’re supposed to sleep in?
It didn’t feel at all like “something in my eye”. I was very photosensitive. I couldn’t keep my eye open. I felt a pain, like a migraine, in the back of my head. Drove a total of 2 hours like that before actually making it to the eye doctor, too.
They gave me a steroid suspension and had me keep it covered for a few days. Oh, and I learned I have chronic dry eye. Yay.
You can scratch your corneas, or you can just abrade them. If you can face light, it isn’t that bad. I wore sunglasses inside for two days when I left my contacts in too long once.
If it was a lengthening/thickening mascara, you might have gotten some fibers in your eye. The chemicals in mascara can make your eyes burn too.
Try rinsing with plain saline (the kind for contact wearers). Don’t use anything that says it gets the red out.
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