How to Get Stuff Out of Your Eye

Eyebrows and eyelashes naturally protect your eye from foreign particles. Still, the occasional piece of fuzz, eyelash or even small bug becomes painful if trapped inside your eye or under your eyelid. Avoid rubbing, which can push the object further back into your eye socket or potentially scratch the surface of your cornea. Keeping the foreign object easily accessible is important because you cannot remove something that travels behind your eyeball. Remain calm and follow a few basic first-aid steps to remove a foreign particle from your eye.

Things You'll Need

• Saline solution
• Cotton swab

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Instructions

• 1

  Wash your hands. Although you should never touch your eyeball with your finger, you may need to hold open the lid and want to avoid possible infection of a tear duct or other injured area.

• 2

  Blink several times. Blinking naturally distributes moisture over the eyeball and helps push the particle towards the front of your eye.

• 3

  Rinse your eye with saline solution. Aim the saline nozzle just above your tear duct and release a few drops of the solution into your eye. The infusion of water should wash the particle toward the front of your eye for easy removal.

• 4

  Pull your upper eyelid over your lower eyelid gently. Overlapping your two eyelids helps recenter the particle to the surface where you can remove it easily.

• 5

  Take a cotton swab and gently swipe it over the object, removing it from your eye. Cotton swab removal is only appropriate if the particle is on the white surface of your eye. Do not attempt to touch the colored center, called the cornea, with any object, unless you are a medical professional, doing so can cause severe corneal abrasions and be very painful.