Definition
Having a foreign body sensation in your eye means that you have the feeling that something is in your own eye. This is usually expressed by an unpleasant pressing, stinging, itching or burning sensation. The causes can be very diverse and range from actual foreign bodies such as eyelashes or small insects that can get into your eye to the early symptoms of various eye diseases. Our eyes are a very sensitive organ and of great value. Through a “foreign body sensation”, we notice that something may be wrong with our eye, and we can try to eliminate the cause of it and thus prevent greater damage to our eyes.
Causes
A foreign body sensation in the eye can occur in a variety of ways. On the one hand, it is possible that real foreign bodies get directly into our eyes. For example, by rubbing the eyes, eyelashes, eye make-up or things that were previously on our hands can get into the eyes.
Many also know the problem of small insects flying into their eyes while riding a bicycle. And wearing contact lenses is also a foreign body in the eye. But a foreign body sensation is not only caused by actual foreign bodies in our eye.
It is a protective mechanism that often warns us at an early stage of various eye diseases. Depending on which symptoms or diseases accompany the foreign body sensation, doctors can decide which eye disease is involved. These include, for example, inflammation of the conjunctiva, a disturbed structure of our tear fluid, or a so-called entropion in which the eyelashes turn towards the eyeball.
A foreign body sensation can also occur in the eye as part of an exophthalmos (i.e. the eyeball protrudes, often in the case of thyroid diseases) or due to tumors. It is important to note that emergencies such as glaucoma (excessive pressure in the eye that can damage the optic nerve) can also manifest themselves in this way. One should keep in mind that underlying diseases or side effects of medication can also play a role.
So if the foreign body sensation lasts longer without a plausible explanation, it is advisable to consult your family doctor or ophthalmologist. Contact lenses are inserted into the eye for various reasons. They float there in the tear film in front of our cornea.
Once you have got used to wearing contact lenses, they usually no longer feel like an annoying foreign body in the eye. If an unpleasant feeling should occur again when wearing contact lenses, this can have various causes. If too little tear fluid is produced, the eye dries out, so to speak, and the contact lens irritates the cornea.
It comes to an unpleasant feeling. Usually less and less oxygen reaches the eye over time, which is why new blood vessels are formed, so that a reddening can be seen. A lack of hygiene can lead to contamination of the contact lens fluid.
For example, invisible bacteria can enter the eye and cause an inflammation, which can be accompanied by an unpleasant foreign body sensation.
- Customize Contact Lenses
- Inserting contact lenses
- Contact lens intolerance
A foreign body sensation in the eye due to pollen flight occurs in people who have developed an allergy to these substances. The own immune system overreacts when it comes into contact with the pollen of so-called wind pollinators (e.g. hazel, alder and birch in spring or grasses, rye and other plants in summer).
The result is an acute inflammatory irritation of mucous membranes, which affects the eyes, among others. The eyes begin to itch, swell, become red and begin to water. Typical are the sudden onset and appearance of symptoms depending on the seasons.
In addition, accompanying symptoms such as an irritated nose, which alternately tends to runny nose and then becomes congested again, sneezing attacks or coughing fits should be observed. In the case of an operation for “cataracts” (also called cataracts), a new lens is inserted because the old one has become cloudy due to various causes. If there is still a slight irritation of the eye a few days after such an operation, this is considered absolutely normal and harmless.
Patients should take care to follow the recommended aftercare of the eye. To protect the freshly operated eye, eye drops containing glucocorticoids and antibiotics are used. The glucocorticoids are prescribed for a few weeks and prevent inflammation.The antibiotics are administered only a few days after the operation and are intended to prevent infection with bacteria.
If there is severe pain or a renewed deterioration in vision, a doctor should be consulted again. A thyroid gland disease that often manifests itself in the eye is Graves’ disease. A typical symptom of this disease is endocrine orbitopathy.
It involves changes and enlargements of structures located behind the eyeball. These include fat, muscle and connective tissue. Their enlargement leads to the so-called “exopthalmus”, because it appears as if the eyeball is protruding from its cavity.
A foreign body sensation and swelling of the outer part of the eyebrow are early signs of a beginning orbitopathy. It occurs in 60 percent of patients with Graves’ disease and is considered evidence of the disease in conjunction with other signs of hyperthyroidism. In the case of an allergy, the body reacts far too strongly to various substances from the environment, as these substances are usually not harmful to us humans.
This defensive reaction against supposedly threatening substances is manifested by inflammation. Triggering substances are, for example, house dust mites, animal hair, food, pollen or even substances such as latex. So-called cross-allergies can also exist between the individual allergies.
This means that a substance to which you are not actually allergic is so similar to the one I am already reacting to that it also leads to an allergic reaction. It comes in the context of the inflammatory defense to different symptoms. There may be a local reaction in the form of swelling, redness and itching.
However, very often there is a systemic attack of mucous membranes, the respiratory tract and also the cardiovascular system can be affected. If the mucous membranes of the eye are affected, an inflammation of the conjunctiva also occurs here, which manifests itself as redness, swelling, unpleasant itching, tears and foreign body sensation.
- Allergic reaction
- Symptoms of allergy
- Therapy for allergy
If there is a foreign body sensation in the eye with no apparent cause, one can first wait to see if it disappears again within a few hours.
However, if other symptoms such as pain, redness, possibly even nausea and vomiting are added, it can also be a serious eye disease. Often the cause is not obvious to the patient, for example, because it is a side effect of a medication or an underlying disease that is now manifested in the eye. If there is no improvement over a longer period of time, or if there are further complaints, a doctor should be consulted even without a recognizable cause.
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