The Correct Way to Put in & Take Out Contacts

You have just received your new prescription lenses from your eye doctor. He demonstrated how to insert and remove them, but now you're at home trying to practice and you feel like you're stuck. While this new procedure takes practice, you will slowly get comfortable with it. Plug the bathroom sink, have the wetting solution nearby and practice.

Sanitation and Consistency

• Insert and remove your contact lenses safely and correctly every time. If you don't wash your hands with soap and warm water, for instance, you could develop an eye infection. Every time you are getting ready to put your lenses in, wash your hands thoroughly and dry them. If you don't want your lenses sticking to your fingers, dry your hands completely.

  It can be easy to mix up which eye you have put a lens into if you don't always start with the same eye. Contact lens providers and eye doctors recommend that you always start with your right eye. When you put the right contact lens into the right eye every time, you greatly reduce the chance that you will put the wrong lens into the wrong eye. This can be even more important if one eye has a markedly different lens prescription than the other.

Inserting Contact Lenses

• Open the lens case or the lens package for your right eye if you wear disposable lenses. Gently pick up the lens by touching the tip of your middle finger to the lens, and carefully remove it from the solution. Inspect the lens for rips or tears.

  You flinch naturally when first learning to put your lenses in. To get past this instinctive behavior, use your other hand and pull down your lower lid with your middle finger while you hold your upper lid steady with the forefinger of the hand that is holding the lens. Move the finger with the lens gently toward your eye until you make contact. Allow your eye to close while the solution coats your eye, creating a cushion for your lens. Open your eye to make sure the lens is correctly oriented and that it has not slid away from your iris. Do the same for the left eye.

Removing Contact Lenses

• As with putting your lenses in, always remove the right contact lens first. For soft or disposable lenses, use the pinch method to take your lenses out. Gently move the lens toward the bottom of your eye and pinch with your forefinger and thumb. Get a secure grip on the lens and take it out of your eye.

  If you are not comfortable with the pinch method, try the forefinger-and-thumb method. Hold one hand open under your eye and use the forefinger and thumb of the opposite hand to hold your upper and lower lids open. Make yourself blink to "push" the lens out and catch it with the hand you are holding under your eye.