Contact Lens Maintenance
Tips for Maintaining Contact Lens
Many people are not aware of the importance of proper contact
lens maintenance. When you think about it, it is not natural
to wear contact lenses. What you're actually doing is willingly
placing foreign objects into your eyes which are one of the
most sensitive parts of the body. You wouldn't usually allow
something unsanitary into your body, yet people place dirty
contact lenses into their eyes all the time!
And if you are doing this, you need to stop immediately.
Then you need to either change your contact lens prescription
to disposable lenses which require little or no maintenance
at all, or you need to have your eye doctor remind you of
the steps required in proper contact lens maintenance.
More often than not, contact lens maintenance includes the
use of the commercially-available multi-purpose solutions
which take care of cleaning, disinfecting, rinsing and storage.
After removing a contact lens, with hands which were first
washed using non-moisturizing soap, shoot the lens with a
steady stream of the multi-purpose solution for a minimum
of 20-seconds (or as directed), ensuring that both sides of
the lens are sprayed. Some solutions require that the contacts
be rubbed in the palm of the hand using a clean fingertip
to help loosen dirt, protein, cosmetics and other debris.
Make sure that you rinse each lens as directed as this is
an important step in helping rid the lens of foreign matter.
Then, fill a clean storage unit with that same solution and
place the cleaned lens into the appropriately labeled storage
container. While the lenses are being stored, the solution
will disinfect them. Repeat these steps for the other lens.
The maintenance steps are usually the same despite of whether
you wear soft contacts or gas permeable lenses. Since the
maintenance steps were so frequently being skipped, it was
important to devise ways to make cleaning as quick and as
simple as possible.
Those wearing daily contact lenses which aren't disposable
usually take extra step to their maintenance routines, especially
if they wear soft lenses or older styles of gas permeable
lenses which are more prone to protein build-up. As an extra
precaution, using an enzyme cleaner weekly (or as directed)
is very important.
Everything which touches your contact lenses must be kept
clean. That includes fingers, hands, tips of solution bottles
and storage containers.
Do not use water for cleaning as it may contain contaminants
and it's too harsh for some lenses.
You should make it a habit of cleaning routine and stick with
it. Never change without first checking with your eye doctor
or specialist.
If you fail to maintain it on a regular basis, then just
switch to disposable lenses. You're the type of person for
whom these lenses were invented!
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