The cornea is packed with nerve endings, so even a tiny scratch — a fingernail, a branch, grit under a lens — can feel like broken glass with every blink. Most abrasions heal fast with the right care; the job is ruling out worse and preventing infection.
If chemicals are involved, flush with clean water immediately and seek urgent help
Call us — scratches are same-day visits
When a scratch keeps returning
A scratch that re-opens weeks later — classically on waking — is recurrent erosion: the surface never re-anchored. That has its own treatment path, including amniotic membranes.
Superficial abrasions usually heal without a trace. Deep or infected ones can scar — which is why same-day care matters.
No. Lenses stay out until we confirm the surface has closed.
The cornea has among the densest nerve supplies in the body. Small injury, loud alarm.
Many heal within 24 to 48 hours, because the cornea's surface layer regrows quickly, though some take longer. Finish the drops and keep contacts out until we confirm the cornea has closed; the doctor usually rechecks the eye within a day. Occasionally a scratch doesn't heal completely or correctly and keeps re-opening over months or years. That is recurrent erosion, and it has its own treatment, including amniotic membranes.
We put fluorescein dye in the eye and look under blue light at the slit lamp to see the scratch, measure its size and depth, and check for a foreign body. Treatment is an antibiotic drop or ointment to prevent infection, artificial tears for comfort, sometimes a bandage contact lens to speed healing and ease pain, and no rubbing; over-the-counter pain medicine can help. Never use leftover drops at home.
Usually nothing you can see in the mirror: the eye is red, watery and squeezed shut against light, but the scratch itself is invisible without the orange fluorescein dye and blue light we use in the exam. What you feel is the giveaway: sharp, gritty pain with every blink and the sense that something is still in the eye.
Also consider
Next step
Scratched eye? Call now.
Same-day appointments are available with our Los Angeles eye doctors — a scratch seen today heals cleanly.
