This could be anything from dust and dirt to some other airborne particle.
If you wear contact lenses, they could also be to blame.
If chemicals have gotten in your eye, it’s best to get medical attention as soon as possible.
Philip Curtis / EyeEm / Getty Images
Always avoid rubbing your eyes even though you may feel tempted to.
Rubbing your eye can cause whatever is in it to scratch your cornea and make the pain even worse.
Dry Eye
Dry eyes can cause a few different symptoms, including sharp eye pain.
Cluster Headaches
Cluster headachesinvolve pain on one side of the face (from neck to temple).
Fingernails, tree branches, and contact lenses are a few examples of objects that can scratch a cornea.
Treatment may include:
Most of the time, minor scrapes resolve themselves within a few days.
This is because you might get a secondary infection from a scrape or wound.
This buildup creates pressure that can damage the optic nerve.
For example, inflammation of the middle layer of the eyeball (the uvea) is known asuveitis.
In addition to causing pain, it can damage eye tissue, leading to blindness.
It can also result inphotophobia, which is extreme sensitivity to light.
The white part of the eye (the sclera) can also become painful, swollen, and inflamed.
This condition is known as scleritis.
It is often sparked by an autoimmune disorder.
Rubbing or touching your eyes after touching something contaminated can lead to an eye infection.
One of the best-known eye infections isconjunctivitis, also called pink eye.
Other examples of viruses that can cause eye infection areherpes zoster(shingles) andherpes simplex.
A Word From Verywell
A multitude of conditions can result in sharp or stabbing eye pain.
In many cases, the source of the pain can be easily identified and taken care of.
MedlinePlus.Eye - foreign object in.
American Academy of Ophthalmology.Contact lens-related eye infections.
Institute for Quality and Efficiency in Health Care (IQWiG).
American Academy of Ophthalmology.Treating acute chemical injuries of the cornea.
MedlinePlus.Cluster headache
American Optometric Association.Corneal abrasion.
Glaucoma Research Foundation.Types of glaucoma.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.Conjunctivitis (pink eye).
American Academy of Ophthalmology.What is scleritis?
