Eye health is about more than the ability to see. It is also about maintaining a healthy pressure inside your eye. It's about making sure issues like ocular cancer are detected early so they can be treated. You rely on your eyes almost every minute of every day, so of course you want to take eye health seriously — every aspect of it. You can learn more about the breadth of eye care and the work of optometrists on this blog. Reading here is not a replacement for seeing your optometrist, but it can be a good way to boost your knowledge.
Eyelashes and eyelids are there to help prevent things from getting into your eyes, but everyone knows that they're not fool-proof. Sometimes dust, eyelashes, or more dangerous things like bits of glass or debris can get into your eye. If this has happened to you, the last thing you should try to do right now is to try and pluck the offending object out of your eye. This is why.
How It's Dangerous
Your eyes are extremely sensitive to damage, pressure, and scratches. When you try to force something like debris out of your eyes, you can potentially harm the surface of your eye or the cornea by scratching the surface with whatever the object is. In addition, trying to put your fingers into your eyes can introduce dangerous bacteria to them, increasing your risk for developing an infection or an illness like pink eye. For this reason, it's best to leave the offending debris alone, even if it's irritating.
Let the Tears Flow
If you have something stuck in your eye, your eyes naturally will produce tears to flush out the foreign object. Whether you typically cry or not, you should let yourself do so right now. Tears are the body's natural defense against dust and debris getting onto the surface of the eye. When you let the tears loose, they start out from the tear duct and effectively wash across the surface of the eye. This can allow certain types of small debris to be flushed out of the eye entirely. As an added bonus, the salt in your tears is naturally antibacterial, so if you have already scratched your eye, crying can only help.
Get Help
With those preventative tips out of the way, it's important to follow this one no matter what: get your eyes checked. Your eye doctor will be able to remove the debris from your eye, but more importantly, they can inspect your eyes with their specialized equipment. This will let them determine if damage was done to the surface of your eyes, and if so, they can start you on a treatment plan to ensure that you don't get an infection or experience vision damage.
When something gets in your eye, it's easy to want to rub your eye or to try and get the offending object out. Ideally, though, you really shouldn't. Let your tears do their work and get help from a professional instead.
To learn more about the services of an eye doctor, contact professionals like Cripe Stephens & Stickel in your area.