Easy Ways to Put in Contact Lenses

Putting in contact lenses can seem daunting, though the process becomes easier with practice and time. Regardless of your experience with contacts, inserting them need not be traumatic. A few general tips, when carried through correctly, can make it much easier to insert contact lenses quickly and easily. As you become more experienced, inserting the lenses will become easier and easier.

Prepare Your Hands -- And the Lens

• Be sure the lens edge faces up. Prepare the lens properly to ease contact insertion.

  Begin with one lens. Be sure your hands and the lens are completely clean, and that your hands are dry. Place the lens edge-up on the forefinger of your dominant hand and be sure that the lens is not turned inside out (this can be difficult to tell at first, but you will learn to recognize a small lip around a contact's edge that indicates it's not right-side out. A rule of thumb -- if you think it may be inside-out, it probably is.) Debris on the lens or inserting a lens inside-out will cause discomfort, and you may have to remove the lens and try it again.

  Place a drop of saline solution on the contact; this will help it adhere to the eyeball.

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Prepare Your Eye

• Insert lenses before applying makeup to ensure no residue gets on the lens. Hold the eyelids apart using the fingers on your opposite hand; this will not only keep your eyelashes out of the way, but also gives you an expanded "palette" by opening your eye wider, so that greater area is available to which to apply the contact.

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  You may look straight ahead so that the entire cornea is accessible, or choose to look upward, exposing more of the white at the bottom of the eye.

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Place the Lens

• Replace soiled or torn lenses if necessary to avoid discomfort.

  Using the index finger of your dominant hand, place the contact directly over your cornea if you are comfortable looking straight ahead. If you'd prefer to look upward, place the lens on the white of the eye. After placing the contact, remove your finger and blink several times. This will center the lens if you've placed it on the white; if you placed it directly over the cornea, it will help your eye acclimate to the lens. Use the same method to place a lens in your other eye, if necessary.

  Should the contacts irritate you, remove them and inspect them for contaminants, tears, etc. Clean them using solution and try again, or discard them if necessary and reinsert a new lens.

  (all-about-contact-lenses.com, framesdirect.com)