Inserting and removing contact lenses can be a little uncomfortable for the starters. You will become a pro only after a few tries. You need to keep the contacts completely safe and prepare them for wear first. Here are a few tips about how to do it properly.
Preparing to wear contacts:
It is important that you employ good hygiene in taking care and handling of your lenses. To keep the lenses clean is the main objective of the whole protocol. Your hands should be clean when handling contact lenses. The following are a few tips to prepare the contact lenses for wear.
- Wash your hands with a mild soap. Make sure you make foam of soap by rubbing hands. Then rinse your hands completely and use a lint-free towel to dry your hands before touching the lenses.
- Avoid using cold creams, lotions, or any other oily cosmetics before touching the lenses. These things can leave a fingerprint on the lens which can interfere with comfortable wearing.
- Handle the lens with a fingertip and avoid touching it with your fingernails.
How to Insert Contact lenses:
There are two techniques for inserting contact lenses; one-hand placement technique and two-hand placement technique.
One-hand Placement Technique
- Place the lens on your forefinger. Make sure that the edges of the lens are turned upwards.
- Look straight ahead with your head up. Pull down your lower eyelid with the middle of the same hand which has the lens placed on it.
- Look steadily at the point just above you and place the lens on the lower part of the eye.
- Slowly pull back your index finger and release the lower lid gently.
- Look down to bring the lens at the proper position.
- Blink slowly and keep your eyes closed for a couple of seconds and the lens will come at its place itself.
Two-hand Placement Technique
- Place the lens on your index finger of one hand and pull the upper lid to your brow using the middle finger of the other hand.
- Pull down the lower lid using the middle finger of the hand on which you have the lens placed and gently place the lens in the middle of the eye.
- Look downward while still pulling the eyelids to bring the lens to its proper position.
- Then release your eyelids slowly.
Removing Contact Lenses
- Thoroughly wash and dry your hands.
- Make sure the lens is in the correct position on the eye before removing it.
- Look up and pull down the lower lid slowly with the middle finger and place the forefinger on the lower part of the lens.
- Gently press the lens between the index finger and thumb and pull it out. Avoid pressing it too hard to avoid sticking the edges together.
How to take care of the lens:
Always wash, and dry your hands before handling the lens.- Use a fresh and unexpired lens care solution.
- Strictly follow the instructions about the solution and use the recommended lens care system as not all solutions are good for all lenses. Also, different solutions cannot always be mixed and used together.
- Handle your lenses according to the instructions of your eye care doctor. Strictly follow the prescribed schedule for removing, cleaning, rinsing, enzyme, and disinfecting your lenses. You can use the enzyme or cleaning solution as a substitute for disinfection.
- Do not use saliva or anything else except the prescribed solution for lubricating the lenses.
- Stick to the replacement program and do not wear the lenses after the expiration of the wearing period.
- Do not use tap water for rinsing because it contains hundreds of elements that can damage the lens.
- Always rinse the lenses with the recommended saline or disinfecting solution to remove the mucus, cleaning solution, and film from its surface.
- Clean and put the lenses in their chamber one after the other to avoid mixup.
- Disinfect and leave the lenses in the closed cases to store them to keep them safe to use till the next time. If you don’t need to wear the lenses immediately after disinfection, read the labeling of the solution for instructions on lens storage.
- Empty and rinse the lens containers after removing the lenses. Use the recommended solution for that. Leave the containers for air dry. Refill the containers with fresh solution to use it again. Replace lens cases at regular intervals.
Always wash, and dry your hands before handling the lens.