Blowing “sand” out of eyes is apparently not a solution


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Last Updated on 2023-05-10 , 1:51 pm

Remember the old wives’ tale, in which if you feel that there’s a grain of sand (or any particle) in your eyes, you should get someone to blow some air into your affected eye so that somehow, the sand will be blown out?

Or perhaps you’re a bit more of a romantic, and swoon over the male lead blowing something out of the female lead’s eye in yet another cliched K-drama scene?

Unfortunately, I’ll have to crush your K-drama dreams. Just imagine this: if you blow into your eyes, won’t it get lodged deeper into you? Are you expecting the sand to make a U-turn inside your eyes? Have you ever seen how an eye looks like from the inside?

Firstly, it must be understood that it’s almost impossible for the sand to get to the back of the eyeball—it’s a dead end over there. In other words, the sand is in front of your eyes, not behind as much as you feel it is.

We’ve absolutely no idea how that myth came about, and even searching for this solution online did not yield any results. Just like how “looking at grass” would improve your eyesight, which apparently is a culture unique to Singapore and Malaysia, could it be yet another unique solution passed down by our grandparents?

Nevertheless, here’s the ticket: the real solution to getting the “sand” out is by submerging your eyes into water and blinking. Alternatively, blink and let your tears wash the sand out. Never rub your eyes because it might do more harm than good.

You see, there’re apparently various locations that the sand can be lodged, be it on your upper lid, lower lid or the side of the eyes. The whole idea is to flush it out and not blow it out—whoever comes out with the idea of blowing it out is either a genius or simply based on hearsay.

But then again, we’re not dismissing the fact that blowing might be a solution. But the thing is, eye doctors would usually suggest the recommended one, so why stick to the traditional way?