This is similar to a scratch on the skin – any time your clothes rub against the scratch, it is painful. Placing an ointment or gel onto the cornea will soften the impact of the eyelids, and make you overall more comfortable. Every time you blink, your eyelids rub against the abrasion, and this can be quite painful. Sometimes an antibiotic ointment will be prescribed (instead of or in addition to drops), which plays the additional role of providing a “soothing” surface while the abrasion heals. The abrasion is an open door to infection, and it is important to keep the eye clean while the abrasion heals. You will typically be prescribed an antibiotic drop, not necessarily because the doctor thinks the eye is infected, but to prevent any new infection while there is an “opening” on the eye. The doctor will also carefully examine the eye for any hidden foreign bodies and evaluate for infections. When you see an eye doctor for a corneal abrasion, he or she will perform a slit lamp examination using fluorescein dye – a special drop used to identify abrasions. Other common symptoms include redness, light sensitivity, feeling a foreign body in the eye, and blurry vision. That means that even a relatively small abrasion can cause significant discomfort. Just as a comparison, the cornea is about 500 times more densely innervated than the skin. Causes include a fingernail, walking into a tree branch, or contact lenses (during their placement or removal), although something as small as a grain of sand can also cause an abrasion! How Does a Corneal Abrasion Feel?Ī corneal abrasion can be extremely painful! The cornea is the most densely innervated part of the human body. Most corneal abrasions occur after minor trauma to the eye. You may think of the epithelium as equivalent to the skin on our body. The cornea is made up of 5 layers, and the epithelium is the outermost layer of the cornea that is exposed to the environment. A corneal abrasion is a scratch to the epithelium.
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