Scratched eyes are medically known as corneal abrasions, which usually occur in an instant and are one of the most common causes of eye injuries. These injuries impact your cornea, the outer surface of the eye.

Symptoms of a scratched eye

Scratched eyes can be extremely uncomfortable as the cornea is the most densely innervated part of the human body with approximately 7,000 sensory neurons per square millimeter. When you get a scratch in your eye, you might experience the following symptoms:

• A lot of pain
• A lot of sensitivity to light
• Decrease in your vision
• Headaches
• Nausea
• Gritty sensation as if sand or dust is in your eyes.
• Excessive tearing
• Twitching eye

You might experience these symptoms because your cornea contains a lot of nerve endings, so when there is a cut, you may feel a lot of pain. The good news is that when seen in a timely manner a scratched eye does not normally lead to long term complications.

How is a scratched eye diagnosed?

Our optometrist will diagnose your scratched eye by assessing your vision and taking a look at your eyes under the microscope. In order to determine what the best treatment is for your eyes, our eye doctor would apply a yellow dye and then use a blue filter to determine how deep the scratch is and how severe the scratch is.

What are some of the causes for a scratched eye?

Some causes for a scratch can be as simple as:

• You may have rubbed your eye too hard
• When you were taking out one of your contact lenses, your fingernail might have scratched your eye
• If you're a parent and you have a child, your child might have scratched your eye
• If you work in a very risky work environment such as if you're a welder or a plumber you're more susceptible to eye injuries
• Patients with severe dry eye may get scratches to their eye when their eyes are extremely dry

Some causes of a scratched eye are preventable, and proper precautions should be made to prevent your eye from being scratched. For example if you work in a job that has lots of dust or debris such as woodworking or construction, it's important to take the proper precautions and wear safety goggles. But whatever the case may be, it's really important to visit your eye doctor so that we can properly manage, diagnose and treat your condition.

How is a scratch in the eye treated?

An open wound from a scratched eye would typically require an eye doctor to prescribe antibiotic eye drops to prevent infections from developing. A bandage contact lens and copious lubrication of preservative-free artificial tears may also be prescribed. Bandage lenses do not have any prescription power and are worn on your eyes to act as a band aid and a barrier so that you don't irritate the scratched area of your eye every single time you blink. It's really important to follow our doctor's follow up regimen so that you can come back to the eye doctor and make sure everything is healing correctly. And then depending on how your eyes are healing, they would adjust the medication and then also safely remove that bandage contact lens.