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Putting on and taking off lenses is scary and exciting the first few times. But there is nothing complicated in this process, the main thing is to correctly follow the sequence of actions. Beginners will need quite a bit of time and practice to master these skills, and within a few days you will bring them to automatism.
We will discuss in more detail some of the nuances and situations that you need to be aware of when using contact correction tools.
Wash your hands
Any manipulations with lenses should be performed only with cleanly washed hands. When putting on lenses, the fingertips come into contact with the eyeball, and any contamination on the surface of the hands and lenses is transferred to the mucous membrane and threatens the development of inflammation. A huge number of microorganisms live on the hands, which can provoke a wide variety of infectious diseases, such as colds, conjunctivitis, blepharitis, keratitis, etc. Eye diseases can occur with complications, up to loss of vision. This is partly due to the fact that favorable conditions are created under the lens for the development of infection.
Therefore, before putting on or taking off lenses, make it a rule to first wash your hands with soap and water, then dry them with a soft cotton towel. Do not wipe your hands with fluffy products, including fleece or terry. Fluff remaining on the fingers can get on the surface of the lens and the eye and cause irritation.
If you have to remove lenses outside the home, put a bottle of clean water and mini liquid soap in your bag in advance. You can use antibacterial wipes or hand gel, but then you must rinse the composition from your hands with clean water. These products are based on substances that quickly and effectively kill bacteria and viruses on the hands, but at the same time can cause various reactions from the eyes, from banal irritation to severe allergic reactions and even chemical burns.
Use special tools
Manufacturers of products for contact correction try to take care of your convenience and produce special tweezers and suction sticks that make it easier to manipulate lenses.
The suction cups are made in the form of small sticks, they have a silicone tip at the end, which is attached to the surface of the lens. With the help of a suction cup, you can insert the lenses into your eyes without touching them with your hands.
Also useful will be tweezers, which help to remove the lenses from the container and return them back after. Tweezers can be made of plastic or silicone, or combined – plastic handles are covered with silicone tips.
Step by step instructions for removing lenses
It is always better to start removing lenses from the same eye – right or left, as it is more convenient. This will make it possible not to confuse the lenses, especially if they are with different diopters. In addition, it is easier to get used to performing actions according to the algorithm and bring them to automatism.
And then the procedure is as follows:
- Look up, holding the upper eyelid with the finger of one hand, and with the middle finger of the other hand (leading), with which you will remove the lens, pull the lower eyelid.
- Place the pad of the index finger of the dominant hand on the lower edge of the lens and, pressing it firmly, move it “as if from a hill” or clearly down or towards the nose. The tighter you press your finger on the lens, the faster you can remove it.
- Gently squeeze the lens with the pads of your thumb and forefinger to remove it from your eye. If it is inconvenient to do this with your fingers, you can use a suction cup.
- Repeat the same with the second lens.
Lens care
Incorrect handling of lenses and neglect of the rules of disinfection is one of the causes of complications in contact correction.
After the lenses are removed, they should be placed on a dry palm, dripped with a universal solution for processing, rub the lens thoroughly on both sides with the index finger, then rinse the lens again with the solution. After that, you need to put the lens in a storage container filled with ⅔ of the same solution. Repeat the same procedure for the second lens and tightly close the container lid. For convenience, you can use tweezers.
If you use daily replacement lenses, they must be disposed of after removal. Their reuse is not allowed.
Physician advice
“Different types of hard lenses, including scleral ones, are made individually for a particular patient – they are prescribed in cases of complex eye pathology, when it is impossible to achieve the desired effect with soft contact lenses,” says ophthalmologist Fatimat Khulamkhanova. – The methods of putting on, taking off and caring for such lenses have important features, which, among other things, depend on the course of the disease of a particular patient. All these nuances are usually described in detail during the selection of such lenses at an appointment with a specialist.
If the lens sticks to the eye, you can apply moisturizing drops and try to gently move it with your finger through the lower eyelid or by placing your finger directly on the lens.
But what if you can’t remove the lens?
“First, you need to make sure that it is still on the surface of the eye,” advises ophthalmologist Fatimat Hulamkhanova. – Quite often we have to deal with the fact that patients are trying to remove the lens, which is not there. During attempts to remove the lens, it may fall imperceptibly and be lost on clothing or surfaces around, and the patient, having missed this moment, continues his actions, which only injure the eye. You can tell if the lens is in place by visual acuity: if it remains as high as it usually is with correction, this confirms that the lens has not been lost. And the second point that you need to pay attention to is the presence of a bluish transparent rim around the cornea, by which the lens can be identified. If you are convinced that the lens is still on the surface of the eye and it is impossible to remove it using the methods available to you, you should seek help from an ophthalmologist as soon as possible.
Popular questions and answers
We asked ophthalmologist Fatimat Hulamkhanova a few questions about lens removal and care.