How to get something out of your eye

Usually if you get something in your eye, your eye will tear up and wash out the foreign body. Sometimes, though, something gets in your eye and you can't quite get it out. A couple of health and safety warnings before we get whatever it is out of your eye. First off, be careful not to stratch your corneas. A scratched cornea can be quite painful and take a couple of days-if not longer- to heal. Be careful, and don't go poking around in your eye with anything that has any kind of sharp tip.

Also, be sure to wash your hands so you don't give yourself an eye infection.

If you have anything embedded in your eye, or bits of glass, metal, very large foreign bodies or chemicals in your eye, don't try to get them out yourself. Tape a paper cup over your eye and head to the ER or your doctor's office.

With that said, on to getting that thing out of your eye!

Edit: I completely neglected to cite sources I quoted. Mea culpa. If this was a paper, I'd get an F. 
Thank goodness it's not and I don't!

Sources:
http://www.baptistonline.org/health/health_library/eye4220f.asp
http://www.uihealthcare.com/topics/eyesandvision/eyes4516.html

Step 1: Method to try

Look in a mirror, if one's handy, and try to locate where the foreign object is in your eye.

The method you try will likely depend on where the nasty bit is in your eye.

First, no matter where the object is, try blinking. I don't mean a little sissy *wink, wink*. I mean, really BLINK. If this works and the object is out of your eye, congratulations! Please post a comment and tell me what a difference this instructable made in your life. Everyone else move on to the next method.

Comments

[jemcmiller]

I've had something in my eye since yesterday! I went to bed early because I couldn't take it anymore. I hoped sleep would do the trick. Nope, Still there! I was desperate to get it out and not have to go to the Dr. I did a search and your advice was first to come up. I tried tip #3 a couple times to no avail, but I kept trying. It worked. So thankful!

[Aforementioned]

I love you. I got a small stone stuck in my eye about half an hour ago, and had been rinsing and rinsing to no avail. Came on here and read the steps. Did the lid over lid and eye roll (up and down) alternating with a few big blinks, probably 10-20 times. Went for another rinse, something intensely painful happened (I guess that was the stone coming out) and now my eye is a little sore, but at least the damned thing is gone!!!

[bakdrft]

Good Post ,but. When covering up an eye you must cover both. The idea behind covering up an eye is to keep it protected. The flaw here is that you MUST then cover both eyes. Human eyes do not move independently they BOTH move, No matter how you try both will move even if one is covered up. So cover both eyes.

[Jeeenie]

Wow !!! You're a genius ! Headed to the doc but thought I'd search the web first ! Been in pain for about 12 hours. Step 3!!!!!!!

[fattie]

So I woke up, went to wash my face, I used a scrub that morning, applied, scrubbed, rinsed. As I chucked water on my face for the last time I felt something in my eye, the same feeling I get when I have an eyelash in there. Since I have long eyelashes and plenty of them, this happened often. So I checked it out in the mirror but couldnt see anything. It seemed to be in the top eyelid section. It didnt seem to be an eyelash, it could have been a scrub particle, though whatever it was I couldnt see it. I fiddled with my eye for 5 minutes, nothing. Everytime i tried blinking I could feel it poking my eye as my eyeball rolled to the top eyelid. It was getting red and sore. I said a little prayer to God to relieve me from my turmoil. So I googled it and this came up. The first practical solution was to pull the top eyelid over the bottom. Hmmm...never done that before, so I went over to the mirror and after a couple of tries I managed to pull my top lid over the bottom, I gave my eyeball a quick roll around, then opened my eyes and blinked, that horrible feeling was gone! It had worked! I said a little thank you to God for making such brainy helpful people. Thank you brainy helpful people!!!

[khyndman]

Thank you soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo much! I was getting so scared I was going to have "sand" in my eye forever

[QStarrDaze]

I'm in so much pain! My mom is not taking this serious at all. Today at school I went to the nurse, she tried to flush my eye out with eye drops but nothing seemed to worked. Even my friends tried to blow in my eye... long story short, I got all this spit in my eye for nothing. Lol. But the constant pain is getting in that way of me enjoying my day and that really sucks for me. My nurse even told me to go to the doctor. But here I am, sitting here looking for ways to solve my pain.

[mahtabmd]

Hi , Thanks a lot for your help.. I was feeling irritated with something stuck under my upper eyelid. I am relieved using the step-3 . i just want to thank you from bottom of my heart....

Thanks and Regards,
Mahtab Md.

[htruelson]

OMG!!! I have no words to say how much I can thank you for Step 3! I have had this IRRITATING pain for about nearly 2 days and i thought i had my eye scratched, I tryed all kinds of techniques with flushing out water or blink hard and finally you helped me in 1 MINUTE! Thank you so much for making my day ever so brighter.

[Jomack07]

Amazing!!!! I just had to wake my husband up in the middle of the night to go to the store to get some eyedrops for me. I couldn't even close my eyes it hurt so bad. Tried this step while he was gone and it worked. OMG thank you soooo much!!!! Now I can go back on the boat tomorrow for some holiday weekend fun! :)

[ajohnson62]

Sweet beard of Zeus! who thought rolling your eyes could be this beneficial! thank you so much! I thought i was going to be spending hours at AE, the upper lid over the lower lid seemed to work a treat for everyone else and after having to sleep with what ever was wedged at the back of my eyeball i gave it a go. I tried about 10 times, I even thought my cornea was scratched it was so painful,I got what was wedged at the top of my eye first then the mega painful lower eye. Lid over lid roll works!

[XLorigonzX]

Thank you!!!!!! I was riding my bike in a gravel trail and got a teeny yiny rock sick in my eye for over an hour. I was contemplating going to the ER since my eyes started swelling a bit and randomly twitching. I came across your guide and it worked like a charm! I appreciate it greatly!!!!!!!!!

[triafgg]

Step 3 Saved me from a visit to A&E, and a miserable evening, thank you so much. I had tried pulling the top eyelid over but it didn't work until I tried it with rolling up the eye and the big blink. Superb.

[bevjeffray]

This trick worked immediately for me! Thank you sooo much!

[dreams n chains]

Riding my scooter to work tonight and in spite a visor and windscreen on my bike... something got in my eye. Have spent the last 5 hours attempting to get it out and and was sure my eye must be scratched. I had already tried the upper eye-lid over bottom without success. thank goodness for your instructable! Rolling the eye upward is the trick while holding the upper eyelid over the bottom. Thank You!

[Enjay79]

step 3 worked for me too (pulling the upper eyelid over the lower one and rolling the eye ball)!! Thank you so much

[~Meme~]

It helped get my eye out of my eye.

[shannonlove]

This step worked for me. A gust of wind blew several intact oak stamina right into my one good eye. Just lifted my specs for a second. A rather agonizing 15 minutes stumbling around largely blinded.

I tried flush and everything else but I couldn't remember the eye rotation. Fortunately, I could type by touch and read enough to get here

Back in the stone age when I was in the Scouts we memorized steps to clear our eyes. I thought I'd never forget them. Apparently I did. 

[stormeye]

Step 3 did the trick - made my evening so much nicer. Thank you!

[Shadow8487]

I have Tried all the steps... its still not out! I'm starting to think there's nothing even in there maybe just infected

its on the bottom of my eye and its a little bit swollen-got any suggestions????

[Lithium Rain]

Oooh, yeah - if it's swollen and/or you suspect infection, best see a doctor. Be well!

[Shadow8487]

Yeah ok, went to see a docter today he didnt say much just gave me an eye test, so yeah most likley a infection. Thanks for the time you put in to put those steps on this website!!! :)

[Lithium Rain]

Yikes! Glad you went to get help - thanks for updating me. :) (And no problem - I just collated resources from other sources :) )

[Shadow8487]

Ok thanks
so much better today still swollen but no pain!!!:P

[Rusty1215]

I had already tried putting upper lid over bottom lid and it didn't work. When I tried your method with rolling the eye upward while doing that, IT WORKED!! Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you!!!

[kmroche2]

WOW!!!! I have a 9 year old daughter who tried EVERYTHING until this method and this one worked!! She pulled the eyelid over the other one several times, blinked several times and repeated that process twice. Amazing! That "thing" is gone. We are all happy now.

[EyePain]

THIS STEP WORKED! Thank you so much :)

[NYKILLER]

I Tried All 3 Steps....I Cant Get It Out.. I Think Its A Shaving Of A Cardboard Box... Any Ideas?

[aschmidthiesler]

ugggh. woke up this mornin and got a piece of eye cookie in my eye and no matter how hard I try its still in my eye!!! :(

[showard5]

Thank you so so so much! I was starting to wonder if I had scratched my cornea because whatever it was I could not find it! Tried the pulling my top lid over my bottom one trick and it worked after 2 tries! *hugs* You saved Thanksgiving!

[Lithium Rain]

You're welcome! I'm glad this was helpful! :) *returns hugs*

[pwhalin]

THANK YOU SO MUCH! I HAVE TRIED SO MANY THINGS FOR ABOUT AN HOUR AND A HALF! STEP 3 WORKED!!!! THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[pkhare3]

This method worked after 30 minutes. Back to making my shelf.

[RealSlimShady]

Oh... so i dont have pink eye! YAY! thanks to this method i am no longer a unhappy person and i can FINALLY play Modern Warfare 3 without blinking!!! THANKS!

[edelaria]

ahhhhh thanks i had something in my eye that hurt sooo bad for like 20 mins and i tried the "pull eyelid over bottom eyelid and look all the way up" ... and it worked immediately :D thanx

[eberkowitz]

It worked! Thank you so much!!! Now I can go on with my day. :)

[jkogut]

IVE BEEN BLINKING ALL DAY, IT FEELS LIKE THERE IS SOMETHING UNDER MY EYELID? ANY TIPS?

[pbiswas1]

IT WORKED!!! Was trying to get "that" thing out of my eye for over 2 hours, the usual rinsing, and when I got desperate dunking my head in a bucket of water and rolling my eye in all directions but to no avail. Then I came on to your site and tried first the blinking routine rigorously after which I tried the "roll upper eyelid over the bottom one" and it worked!! It takes 3-4 times of repetitive action but by god it works!!! YOU ARE A LIFE SAVER!! :-p

[earth2heather]

I was really surprised how great the pulling-the-top-eyelid-over-the- bottom -one- and- rolling- the- eye -back worked too!! Totally saved me!!! I had flushed my eye out with water for over 5 minutes and still felt something in there and it didn't go away until I used the trick. Thanks so much!!

[MsFusspot]

I did not expect the pulling-the-top-eyelid-over-the- bottom -one- and- rolling- the- eye -back thing to work for one minute. But it did. In fact all the other websites had convinced me I had a mildly scratched cornea even tho I was sure something was still in my eye (despite having rinsed it several times and not being able to see any 'particles' in it) so I thought I would have to put up with the horrid scratchy feeling for a day or two and it was extremely irritating and unwelcome ...THANK YOU VERY MUCH for instantly and improbably restoring my wellbeing. xxx