Contact lens Insertion and Removal Tips

Contact lenses can be difficult to handle for a variety of reasons and even for the most experienced of contact lens wearers! Here are some tips to help you insert, remove and handle your lenses.

How to tell right-side up from inside out

Your lens should be placed on the finger right-side-up before placing it in the eye. There are several ways to determine sidedness and here are two of them:

The Taco-Test
Place the lens on the finger so that the entire 360 degrees of lens edge do not contact the finger surface. Pinch the lens together. If the edges head toward each other (so that the lens takes the shape of a taco shell) the lens is positioned properly for insertion. If the edges fold over on the fingers or turn outwards (like the brim of a saucer), the lens is inside out and must be flipped and repositioned.

NOTICE THE CURVE OF THE LENS ON THE FINGER TO THE LEFT ABOVE; IT SLOPES UP AND FORMS A "CUP". THIS IS ONE WAY TO TELL. ANOTHER WATY TO TELL IS TO PINCH THE LENS; IT FORMS A "TACO SHELL" SHAPE WHEN PINCHED BETWEEN TWO FINGERS.

INSERTING THE LENS IN YOUR EYE

If the contact lens sticks to your fingers and you cannot set it upright on your finger or if the lens sits properly on your finger but will not release into your eye, here are a couple of things to keep in mind:
Contact lenses are mostly water. Being water-like, they stick to wet surfaces and things that are moist. If you load your lens up with saline before getting ready to insert the lens, your finger gets wetter than your eye and the lens will tend to stay stuck to the finger. Try drying the part of your finger that the lens sits on by rubbing it on your wrist. If you dry it on a paper towel or tissue, you may introduce small, fuzzy foreign objects from the tissue into your eye. The dryer your finger, the easier the lens will release into your eye. Sometimes after taking the lens out of it's cleaning solution or saline, it just won't handle well on your finger. You may want to try to lift up the lens with your other hand, dry the drop of moisture off the finger, and try again. Each time that you do this, the lens will get dryer, take it's shape better and sit on your finger easier. You also will be able to tell the results of the "taco test" easier; as the lens gets dryer it also takes it's shape better, but be careful not to let it get too dry, it may start to warp and need more saline solution.

REMOVING THE LENS FROM YOUR EYE

When removing the lens, it is important to remember from the section on inserting the lens that the lens being mostly water, sticks to wet things better than dry things. If you try to remove a wet contact lens in your eye with a dry finger, it can be difficult. Try wetting the ball of your finger with a drop of saline. If you use the wet part of that finger to touch the lens with, it will stick to the finger and come out easier when you try to pull it out! Always consult your doctor if the lens isn't coming out of your eye easily after several tries.