How to Remove a Torn Contact Lens

Tearing a contact lens is a terrible feeling. It distorts your vision, interrupts whatever you were doing and causes pain and sometimes even panic. Torn lenses are useless, and removing them requires calmness, patience, a mirror, a couple of basic eye-care supplies and a steady hand.

Things You'll Need

• Mirror
• Light source
• Oil-free soap
• Eye drops or saline solution
• Garbage can

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Instructions

• 1

  Stay calm. Tearing a contact is unsettling because it disrupts your vision and causes pain, but panicking will not help.

• 2

  Find a bathroom. You'll need a large mirror and plenty of light.

• 3

  Wash your hands. Use oil-free soap, as it causes less irritation.

• 4

  Open the affected eye as wide as you can.

• 5

  Add lubricating eye drops or saline solution. If your eye is dry, your lens will stick to it. Lubrication will eliminate this problem.

• 6

  Remove any fragment you see. Do this as you would with a normal lens.

• 7

  Look for other fragments. If the part you removed does not constitute a whole lens, the other parts most likely are trapped between your eye and eyelid. You probably will be able to feel where the rest of the lens is trapped.

• 8

  Lift your upper eyelid and look downward as far as possible. If the lens is trapped under your upper eyelid, this will help it slide down.

• 9

  Pull your lower eyelid and look upward. If the lens is trapped under your lower eyelid, this will help it float up.

• 10

  Repeat steps 7 and 8 by looking side to side, if you haven't already located the lens fragment.

• 11

  Remove the fragment. Compare it to the other fragment to ensure that it constitutes a whole lens.

• 12

  Throw the lens away.

• 13

  Call your doctor. It's rare but possible for your contact lens to become trapped to the point where you can't get it out. This may require the help of an ophthalmologist.