4 Tips for Caring for Your Contact Lenses

Proper contact lens care can prevent damage to your contacts and, more importantly, it protects your eyes.

Don’t Put Your Contacts in Your Mouth

If you’re new to the world of contacts, you’ll soon learn that people do this. If it comes out or you have to take it out and don’t have you case, where else are you going to keep it? The problem is, your mouth is filthy. If you must put a contact in your mouth at some point, and chances are you will, make sure you clean it thoroughly before putting it back in your eye. Never put it in your mouth to rewet it. You’d be better off letting your dog lick your eyeball. And, no, don’t do that either.

Hand Washing

You know you need to wash your hands before you handle your contacts, but are you doing it right? Choose soaps that are free of perfumes and lotions. Rinse thoroughly, and dry thoroughly with a clean, lint-free towel. If you in a desperate situation and must use hand sanitizer as a last resort, make sure you rinse it off or it will burn. You can rinse it with saline solution.

Use Clean Solution Only

Never reuse solution. Keep your solution bottle closed when not in use. And never let the tip of the bottle touch anything. Not your contact, not your eye, not even your fingers. If the tip of the bottle comes in contact with anything, throw it away and get a new one.

Getting Your Makeup Right

Put your contacts in before you apply your makeup. This has two benefits. It helps to prevent contaminating your contacts and you won’t mess up your eye makeup while putting them in. When it comes to removing your makeup, take your contacts out first. This will help prevent contaminating or tearing your contacts. You do not want to get eye makeup remover on your lenses. Depending on what you use, it can leave a film that is very difficult to clean off.

For full instruction on how to car for your contact lenses, talk to your ophthalmologist.