Tricks for Putting in Soft Contact Lenses

If you have never worn contacts before, putting them in for the first time can prove to be a rather daunting task. The body's natural reaction when something is coming straight at your eye is to close your eye. However, in order to insert your soft contact correctly, you must force your eye to stay open until the contact is in place. Here are some tips for inserting your soft contact lenses.

First and Foremost

• The first thing to remember is to wash your hands thoroughly. The eye is susceptible to infections, and if any germs are on your hands, it is easy to transfer the germs to your contact or the eye itself. Additionally, always make sure you clean your lenses with a saline solution before inserting them into you eye, and handle your soft contacts gently. The material of soft contacts is easy to tear, so any rough handling will result in a contact that is unusable. Finally, always make sure when you begin the process of inserting your lenses that you insert the same lens first to avoid mixing your contact lenses up. Your prescription for one eye will generally be different from the other, so mixing up your contact lenses means you will have to repeat the process of putting in your contact lenses to remedy the problem of a mix-up.

Putting in Your Contacts

• Once you have made sure to prepare to put in your soft contact lens, you are ready to start with the first insertion. If you are starting with the right eye, place the contact on the index finger of your right hand. If you are beginning with your left, place the contact on the tip of you index finger of your left hand. With the middle finger of the side you are putting the contact in on, pull down the bottom of your eye. Bring your opposite hand from over your head, and use your fingers on the opposite hand to hold up the top of your eye. Look up, and then carefully bring your index finger with the contact lens on it to your eye. Insert the lens into your eye, pushing very gently. Once you feel the lens stick to your eye, pull your finger away. Blink your eye a few times, and the contact lens will automatically center over your eye. Repeat the entire process for the opposite eye.

Problems

• One of the biggest irritants of soft contact lenses is when they are placed in the eye inside out. Due to the material contacts are made of, it is easy for them to get turned inside out. If you notice that the contact is itching or just plain uncomfortable, odds are this is the problem. You can prevent this problem by making sure to look at the contact before putting it into you eye. The lens has a bowl-like shape. With the lens on the tip of your finger, examine the edges of the bowl and make sure they go up and do not flare out. If the edges are flared out, your contact is inside out, and you will need to push it the opposite way to make it right again. Never rely on your vision to tell you the lens is inside out because a lens being inside out will not affect how you see through the lens. Another tip after inserting the lens is to drop in some of the same saline drops that you use to soak your soft contact lenses. Soft contact lenses must be soaked in saline solution not only to clean them but also to keep them from drying out. The same solution should be dropped into the eyes after insertion and at any other point you feel your eyes drying out. The last tip is not to give up on your contacts. Although the task can seem complex at first, once you get the hang of it, it is actually fairly simple. Keep trying, and do not give up.