Guide · urgent
Something in my eye: what to do, and what not to do
Most things wash out. The ones that don’t — and the ones you should never try to get out yourself — are the reason to know this before it happens.
First minute
Blink. Let it water — that’s the eye trying to wash it out. If it’s still there, pull the upper lid down over the lower lashes and let go; the lower lashes sweep the underside of the upper lid, where things lodge. Rinse with clean water or saline, eye open, for a minute.
Never
Rub — it grinds whatever it is into the cornea. Try to remove anything with a fingernail, tweezers or a tissue. Use anyone else’s eye drops. Drive with one eye streaming.
A&E, not us
A chemical — rinse for fifteen minutes first, then go. Anything that has hit the eye at speed — grinding, hammering, a nail gun, a strimmer — even if it looks fine: metal fragments can go through. A cut to the eye itself.
Us, today
Something you can feel but can’t see or shift · grit that’s scratched the eye — it feels like a cut and light hurts · an eye still red and sore the morning after · anything in a contact lens wearer’s eye. Same-day appointments, free under the NHS urgent scheme where you qualify. We look under the microscope, lift the lid, remove what’s there, and check the cornea for a scratch; a scratch is treated with drops and heals in days.
The short version
- Blink, let it water, lid over lashes, rinse
- Never rub or pick
- Chemicals and high-speed impacts: A&E
- Still there, or scratched: ring us today