Caring For Your New Contact Lenses
If you have decided to ditch your glasses for disposable contact lenses because you would like to show the world what your face looks like without hiding behind spectacles, you will need to learn how to care for them properly. Incorrect care can cause you to go through disposable contacts faster than you wish. It also can put your eyes at risk for injury. Here are some tips to follow so your contact lenses last while your eyes stay healthy.
Give Your Eyes A Break
Many people will wear contact lenses from the time they wake until they go to sleep. While this is fine, sleeping with them in can cause problems to both your eyes and lenses. Upon waking, you will notice your contact lenses feel as if they are dried onto your eyeball, and it usually takes several minutes of blinking or eye drops to soften them up enough to remove. You could get a scratch in an eye from a dried up lens. You also put your lens at risk for tearing when you remove it from your eye. Make sure you always remove your contacts before sleeping.
Hydrate Often
To keep your eyes feeling fresh and your contacts lubricated, use rewetting drops throughout the day if you feel your eyes are dry. These will give you added moisture within the eye so your contacts do not cause you any discomfort.
Keep Your Hands Off
If you feel like something is inside your eye, such as an eyelash or piece of dust, remove your contact lens from your eye and rinse it with saline solution. Do not rub at your eyes or try shifting your contact lens in your eye by using your finger or you may scratch your eye in the process. It is also not a good idea to put your finger on a contact lens without washing your hands first, as you can transfer bacteria into your eye.
Use The Right Products
Ask an optometrist, like the ones at The Eye Center, for a recommendation as to what product line to use to disinfect and store your contact lenses. There are several products on the market that allow you to use the same solution for disinfection and storage. To disinfect, take a contact lens out of your eye, place it in your palm and place a few drops of the solution on top of the lens. Use your fingertip on your other hand to rub the solution on your lens, gently. This will loosen protein deposits from your lens. Use a bit more to rinse the loosened deposits off the lens. Pour new solution into a contact lens case and place your contact lens inside to store.
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