Getting rubbing alcohol in your eye hurts right away, but most splashes turn out to be harmless once the eye is rinsed well.1HealthyChildren.org. Eye – Chemical In Alcohol can still burn the clear front surface of the eye, and the serious cases usually involve contact that lasted too long, which is why thick sanitizer gels and small children need extra care.
What to Do in the First Few Minutes
Rinsing is the treatment. If symptoms appear, they often go away with a brief, thorough washing out of the eye right away.2HealthyChildren.org. symptomviewer Use gently running lukewarm tap water or saline for at least 15 minutes, keeping your eyelids open the whole time. Don’t stop after a few seconds just because the sting eases; that is the most common mistake, and the chemical may still be there.
Tilt your head so the affected eye is lower, which sends the water away from the other eye. A gentle shower stream works, and so does a cup of water poured steadily. Pull the lower lid down and lift the upper lid so water reaches the hidden pockets, and roll the eye in every direction as you rinse.
Take out contact lenses as soon as you can, because they can trap the chemical against the eye. Wash your hands first if that’s quick, but don’t delay for long. If the eye is clamped shut or burning too much to remove the lens, start rinsing, since the water often floats it loose. Throw the lens away, because it has soaked up the chemical, and wear glasses until the eye feels normal.
Don’t rub the eye, which can scrape a surface that is already irritated. Skip other drops, milk, and home remedies, and don’t try to “neutralize” the alcohol.
For a small child, wrap them in a towel to hold their arms still. One adult holds the eyelids open while another pours water. Expect crying, which actually helps by making tears.
Gel sanitizers are thicker, so they stay on the eye longer and wash out more slowly than liquid alcohol.3PubMed Central. Ocular chemical burn associated with gel type alcohol-based hand sanitizer A gel can hide in the folds under the eyelids and resist ordinary rinsing, which keeps symptoms going.4PubMed Central. Burns Caused by Hand Sanitisers: The Trail of a Collateral Damage Left Behind by the Covid Pandemic Rinse gel splashes longer and pay special attention under the upper and lower lids.
After the first long rinse, look in a mirror and pull the lower lid down and the upper lid up to check for leftover gel or a slippery film. If you can still see or feel gel, keep rinsing rather than wiping, because a tissue or fingers can push it around and scrape the eye. Gel that keeps stinging after a full rinse is a reason to get the eye checked, since a doctor can flush out what you can’t reach.
Why Alcohol Stings and How It Harms the Eye
Alcohol breaks down the proteins in the eye’s surface cells almost instantly, so those cells stop working properly.5ReFocus Eye Health. What Happens If You Get Isopropyl Alcohol in Your Eyes? Liquid alcohol can cause intense irritation and even a scrape on the cornea, the clear front window of the eye.6IPCS INCHEM. ISOPROPYL ALCOHOL Even alcohol vapour can irritate the eye.7IPCS INCHEM. ISOPROPYL ALCOHOL Isopropyl alcohol, ethanol and methanol can all cause inflammation of the cornea, which is often significant but usually heals on its own.8Review of Optometry. Don’t Get Burned
The stinging is fast because the cornea has a very dense supply of pain-sensing nerve endings, so even a small amount feels intense. The burning also makes the eye water and clamp shut.
Blinking and tearing begin at once and wash away part of the alcohol, which is why a quick splash often does little lasting harm. The cornea’s outer layer also renews itself, shedding damaged cells and replacing them as long as the deeper layers are intact. Still, tears are no substitute for rinsing.
The difference between simple irritation and a chemical burn, meaning actual tissue damage from a chemical, comes down to depth. Often the difference is how long the alcohol stayed in the eye. Irritation affects only the outer cells, which renew quickly. A chemical burn goes deeper and can leave a raw patch on the cornea.
Rubbing alcohol is harsher than drinking alcohol. In animal testing, 50% isopropyl alcohol caused about two and a half times the eye reaction of 50% ethanol.9Public Safety Canada. Comments on the Use of Capsaicin Spray When isopropyl alcohol sits on the eye, it can kill cells beneath the surface layer, in the outer quarter of the cornea.10PubMed. Alcohol versus mechanical epithelial debridement: effect on underlying cornea before excimer laser surgery
Rubbing alcohol is typically sold at around 70% isopropyl, and a stronger product is more damaging than a weaker one in the same amount of time. Some hand sanitizers contain ethanol and others isopropyl, so the label tells you which you’re dealing with.
Normal Symptoms Versus Warning Signs
Right after a splash, you’ll likely feel some of these:
- Burning or stinging right away11North Georgia Eye Associates. What To Do If You Get Hand Sanitizer In Your Eye
- Eye pain and irritation12North Georgia Eye Associates. What To Do If You Get Hand Sanitizer In Your Eye
- Redness13North Georgia Eye Associates. What To Do If You Get Hand Sanitizer In Your Eye
- Blurred vision14North Georgia Eye Associates. What To Do If You Get Hand Sanitizer In Your Eye
- Sensitivity to light15North Georgia Eye Associates. What To Do If You Get Hand Sanitizer In Your Eye
Once you’ve rinsed, check how the eye is doing. Cover the other eye and read something to see whether vision is clear. Right after a splash, vision often looks smeared from tears and irritation, and a blink or two may clear it. Check each eye separately, because a bad eye can be hidden when both are open. Mild redness can linger an hour or two and is usually fine if it is fading and you have no other warning signs. Mild light sensitivity is common too, since the irritated cornea reacts to brightness. Dimming the room or wearing sunglasses outdoors can make you more comfortable.
If symptoms remain after rinsing, go to the emergency room.16HealthyChildren.org. symptomviewer Longer exposure can lead to serious eye damage, including vision loss.17Synapse. What are the side effects of Isopropyl Alcohol? Pain that doesn’t ease or gets worse, vision that stays blurry after resting the eye, strong or worsening light sensitivity, or a white or cloudy patch on the eye means you should be seen today. A feeling like sand in the eye that lasts after rinsing can mean the surface is scraped and also needs checking.
At the eye doctor or ER, they will ask what product it was and how long it was in the eye. They check your vision on an eye chart and examine your eye under a magnifying microscope with a light.18College of Optometry Theses, Dissertations and Capstone Projects. Personal defense sprays: Effects and management of exposure An orange dye shows any scraped areas, and they may rinse your eye more.
How Long Healing Takes
After eye surgery in which alcohol is used to loosen the eye’s surface layer, it typically regrows in about 4 days.19PubMed Central. Alcohol-assisted versus Mechanical Epithelium Removal in Photorefractive Keratectomy In one surgery study, 95% of eyes treated this way had healed by day 4.20Ophthalmology / Elsevier. A prospective evaluation of alcohol-assisted versus mechanical epithelial removal before photorefractive keratectomy Those were controlled surgical doses rinsed off quickly, so an accidental splash that stays in longer may heal more slowly. A mild splash with only irritation may settle within hours, while a scraped area takes days.
A normal recovery has soreness greatest on day one. The gritty feeling eases as the surface regrows, and blur should steadily clear rather than linger.
After a burn, the body’s inflammation helps repair the eye, but too much of it can cause further damage.21PubMed Central. Management Strategies of Ocular Chemical Burns: Current Perspectives Doctors may give drops for inflammation or to prevent infection, and may recheck the eye after a day or a few days to see whether the raw area is shrinking. Keep the follow-up even if you feel better, because feeling fine doesn’t always mean the surface has fully healed.
At home, skip contact lenses until a doctor says the eye has healed, and use only the drops you were prescribed. Go back if pain returns or vision worsens.
Hand Sanitizer and Children
During 2020, poison centers in France saw about seven times more child eye exposures to sanitizer than the year before.22JAMA Ophthalmology. Pediatric Eye Injuries by Hydroalcoholic Gel in the Context of the Coronavirus Disease 2019 Pandemic More of these cases happened in public places as the months went on, reaching about half by late summer.23JAMA Ophthalmology. Pediatric Eye Injuries by Hydroalcoholic Gel in the Context of the Coronavirus Disease 2019 Pandemic Of 16 young children admitted to one eye hospital, about 3 years old on average, half had sores on the eye’s surface.24JAMA Ophthalmology. Pediatric Eye Injuries by Hydroalcoholic Gel in the Context of the Coronavirus Disease 2019 Pandemic Two of those children needed tissue grafts to heal the eye.25JAMA Ophthalmology. Pediatric Eye Injuries by Hydroalcoholic Gel in the Context of the Coronavirus Disease 2019 Pandemic Public dispensers sit at a small child’s face height, and children also rub their eyes with sanitized hands. Like an ointment compared with drops, gel stays on the eye longer and can burn deeper and wider.26PubMed Central. Ocular chemical burn associated with gel type alcohol-based hand sanitizer
Young children can’t describe pain well, so crying, squinting or hiding from light may be the only clues, and a child who calms quickly may still have a scraped surface. A child needs a doctor if they keep the eye shut or won’t open it, or if crying or rubbing continues after rinsing. Always seek care after a gel splash in a young child.
Tell the doctor what the product was, or bring it, because the label shows whether it is a gel and which alcohol it contains. Say how long it was in the eye before rinsing and how long the rinse lasted, and mention if the child rubbed the eye.
To prevent these injuries, pump sanitizer onto the child’s hands yourself and let it dry fully before they touch their face. Keep bottles out of reach and supervise use.
Can It Cause Permanent Damage
Most alcohol injuries to the eye’s surface heal on their own.27Review of Optometry. Don’t Get Burned Prolonged exposure, though, can damage vision.28Synapse. What are the side effects of Isopropyl Alcohol? Deep gel injuries can heal slowly in both the cornea and the surrounding eye surface.29PubMed Central. Ocular chemical burn associated with gel type alcohol-based hand sanitizer
The cornea is clear because its cells and fibers are tidy, and a deep injury can heal with cloudy scar tissue. A scar near the center blocks and scatters light, which can leave vision blurry or hazy. A scar off to the side may affect vision much less. Signs of a deeper injury include cloudiness on the cornea that persists, a large raw area that a doctor finds with dye, or vision that doesn’t recover after several days. Delayed healing or infection is easier to treat when found early, so a follow-up visit matters even when a first exam looked reassuring.