Foreign Bodies—Corneal Disorders

Your cornea is the outermost layer of your eye. It is clear and shaped like a dome. The cornea helps to shield the rest of the eye from germs, dust, and other harmful matter. It also helps your eye to focus. If you wear contact lenses, they float on top of your corneas.

Problems with the cornea include

• Refractive errors
• Allergies
• Infections
• Injuries
• Dystrophies – conditions in which parts of the cornea lose clarity due to a buildup of cloudy material

Treatments of corneal disorders include medicines, corneal transplantation, and corneal laser surgery.

NIH: National Eye Institute

• Cloudy cornea (Medical Encyclopedia)
• Corneal injury (Medical Encyclopedia)
• Corneal transplant (Medical Encyclopedia)
• Corneal ulcers and infections (Medical Encyclopedia)
• Fuchs dystrophy (Medical Encyclopedia)
• Keratoconus (Medical Encyclopedia)

If you’ve ever gotten a splinter or had sand in your eye, you’ve had experience with a foreign body. A foreign body is something that is stuck inside you but isn’t supposed to be there. You may inhale or swallow a foreign body, or you may get one from an injury to almost any part of your body. Foreign bodies are more common in small children, who sometimes stick things in their mouths, ears, and noses.

Some foreign bodies, like a small splinter, do not cause serious harm. Inhaled or swallowed foreign bodies may cause choking or bowel obstruction and may require medical care.

• Bezoar (Medical Encyclopedia)
• Eye – foreign object in (Medical Encyclopedia)
• Foreign body in the nose (Medical Encyclopedia)
• Foreign object – inhaled or swallowed (Medical Encyclopedia)
• Splinter removal (Medical Encyclopedia)