Know the Methods for Treating Corneal Abrasions

Your eye is an important organ in your body and within the eye, the cornea is the most important part.

The cornea of your eye is dome shaped transparent layer that envelops the white portion of your eye namely the sclera.

Cornea plays a very important role in your vision and it is only one millimeter in thickness, not more than your credit card thickness.

You can also see through your transparent cornea and you can see the iris and pupil of your eye and beyond which lies your vitreous, retina, and optic nerve at the back of your eye.

The entire thickness of cornea may not exceed one millimeter and within this thin layer, your cornea holds five layers making it look like a many layered cake.

Each of the five layers of your cornea has its own specific functions and the top most layer is the epithelium or the epithelial layer that protects the cornea and serve as a smooth surface for tears to flow and clean.

The second layer of your cornea is very thin and it is known as Bowman’s membrane. The thickness of this membrane is very similar to the sticking tape and the next layer is the stroma. This stroma layer is transparent and is the tough part of the cornea and also makes the bulk of your cornea volume.

Next comes another sticky tape thickness layer named Descemet’s membrane. These first three layers provide a structural support to your cornea and these layers are arched over your cornea externally.

The next layer of your cornea is the inner lining of endothelial cells (this is also called as endothelium) and is an important layer that has contact with the aqueous of the eye's anterior compartment and functions as a pump that keep draining the excess liquid or moisture from corneal surface.

In the event of this pump or the endothelium cells malfunctioning, your cornea will swell in its size and you will start experiencing distorted vision or vision damage.

In general your cornea is devoid of any blood vessels in it, but at the same time very rich in nerve fibers and around 70 percent of these sensory nerve fibers are situated under the epithelial layer alone and that makes your cornea a very sensitive part in your eye.

The epithelial cells layer is in fact a protective layer that protects your underlying nerve fibers and this can be compared to the enamel layer of your tooth.

Hence any damage to this layer of epithelium cells will result in a severe pain due to the underlying nerve fibers getting exposed.

What are Corneal Abrasions and how it is treated?

As your cornea is the seat of many layers and millions of nerve fibers, any small injury to your cornea will result in an enormous irritation and pain.

In the event of an abrasion or a scraped epithelium, you will have a lot of discomfort until your eyes re-grow the layer of cells again.

Further, it is your cornea that is more prone to external injury and even innocuous materials such as envelope ends, baby’s finger nails, soft leaf tips, etc., can hurt your cornea and you may experience a severe pain and discomfort.

You may also develop redness and experience a feeling as if sand grains have entered into your eye in case of injury to your cornea. In case of corneal injury, you may also become more sensitive to bright light.

Identifying any of the corneal injury is difficult and hence eye doctors use special fluorescent dyes for highlighting the injured or damages areas of cornea and decide on the extent of injury.

Nature has provided us with an ability with which your cornea can get healed on its own within a very short period of time, say within few days and in many cases a complete healing were reported within hours of injury and hence you may not suffer any extensive damage to your cornea.

As nature has provided us with a natural healing process for corneal abrasions, what we can do is to provide a conducive atmosphere and help in enhancing the healing process faster and better.

Any injury, be it on your cornea or on your skin in the form of abrasions, will result in discomfort till a new or fresh layer of cells form and cover the exposed nerve endings.

Hence, the corneal abrasion can be well treated with a provision of a simple eye patch. However, providing an eye patch is not easy as said, and you should not opt for buying one over the counter and put it on your eye without consulting an eye doctor.

The purpose of an eye patch is to immobilize the movement of eyelids and you should ensure that the placed patch doesn’t come in contact with the eye surface even accidentally.

Further, in the vent of an injury, the epithelial cells present in your eye need extra time for growth and to cover the injured area and to facilitate this process the placed eye patch should be firm and tight in place that can restrict your eyelids from moving

Under any normal conditions, one single eye patch may not be sufficient and you may be in need of more than two or three such patches for immobilizing your eyelid from movement.

Hence your eye doctor is the right person for fixing the eye patches correctly and you should never attempt to get it fixed all by yourself. Eye doctors either stack three patches over the eyelid or use two, with the one directly on the eyelid folded in half.

Further the doctors generally use two or three eye patches and one patch may be directly placed on eyelid in a folded position.

Initially surgical tapes will be used, at least four pieces of them, to fix the first patch over the eyelid and the tape may start from your forehead and extend up to your cheek.

In case the eye patches are not suitable, then your doctor will put a special "bandage" contact lens over the abrasion and such bandage contact lens can help patients in avoiding the bulky eye patch.

Further the bandage contact lenses can help in faster healing with minimum discomfort.

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