When it comes to getting started with contact lenses, one of the most important things you’re going to need to be able to do is get the lenses out effectively and safely. You can spend all the time in the world at home practising to get the lenses in but if you can’t get them out, then you’re potentially stuck in a dangerous situation. So in this post, we’ll look at how to get your lenses out, three issues that people face and three fixes to these issues.
So let’s get started with the first issue…..
When it comes to issues around how to take out contact lenses, the number one issue that I come across is;
- People not using their thumb effectively to grab the lens and remove the lens.
It’s understandable as a new contact lens wearer you’re not yet used to messing around with your eyes and having your fingers around your eyes and your eyelashes. So as a result, we tend to find that people tend to be quite good at touching the contact lens with the index finger, but their thumb tends to be outside of the eye or stroking the lashes and not firmly in contact with the contact lens. As a result, they never fully get a grip of the contact lens and this can be quite an annoying thing to them because they don’t see what’s going on and they don’t have an awareness of the issue that they’re having around using their thumb to make sure that they’re compressing their fingers together enough to be able to get the lens out.
So typically, somebody who’s struggling to get the contact lenses out because they’re not using their thumb effectively, you find that the index finger would be firmly on the contact lens, whereas the thumb is outside of the eye or stroke in the lashes and is not firmly on the surface of the eyeball and touching the contact lens
My tip for fixing this would be, as you go in think about your thumb.
First of all, make sure that your thumb is resting on the colour part of your eye, the Iris area and that your index finger is also in contact with the surface. Now, if the lens is in place, then you’re touching the lens and not your eye and it’s not going to cause any irritation, so you don’t have to worry about your eyes getting irritated because you’re touching the surface of the eyeball so often, that people’s anxiety or fear about touching their eyes is what causes them to not get a firm grip of the lens. Once you’ve got your thumb and your index finger firmly arrested on your right and touch your contact lens, then your position can get a firm grip of the lens.
So it’s a simple fix to make, what I find is that just making people aware that they need to make sure that their thumb is touching the eye makes a huge difference in them being able to grab the lens and being able to take the lens off the surface of the eye.
- So on the second issue, I find that People are not using the mirror effectively.
Now, just remember that the contact lens is quite large, It extends about a millimetre over the colour part of the eye with your Iris and onto the white of the eye. So as long as you can see by closing the other eye, the lens is in place then what you need to do is use the mirror so that you can see roughly where the edges of the contact lenses are, that way just by having that clear view of the contact lens or at least having a clear view of the Iris area where you’re going to rest your thumb and your finger, then you’ve got a better chance of grabbing the lens. It helps you to build a visual awareness of what’s going on in the process and helps you to kind of really build that muscle memory or this visual memory of the process so that in a short time you’ll find that you won’t need them to be able to do this anymore.
- The third and final issue that I find that people have is that they’re just being far too gentle with their contact lens.
So we’ll explain this to people, I usually illustrate this by using the back of my hand and then just compressing the skin on my hand. Now, this point is to show people the difference between just gently kind of stroking the surface of the lens and getting a firm grip of that lens, using your thumb and your index finger with a fairly wide grip, then pressing firmly just to compress the skin in the same way that I expect you to be able to do so with the contact lens. This shows you typically what most people will be doing, so by stroking the surface of the lens, it feels like you’re having a good go at getting the lens out, but in fact, you’ve not got a fair amount of grip on the lens and as a result, you can’t pull it off and pull it away from the surface of the eye, just remember that the contact lens once is on your eye and hydrated to the temperature of your eye, It’s got quite a firm attraction to the surface of your eye. So it does need a good firm hold on the lens to be able to lift it off the surface.
Usually what I find is that when people take into account all of these three steps, when it comes to removing and taking out their contact lenses, it makes a huge difference to how effectively they’re able to get the lenses out, most people, usually find a short period they’re taking the lenses out first time every time.
Extra tip of the day for you.
If you’re somebody who’s struggling to remove your lenses, then you might want to invest in some saline solution and use a saline solution to wash your eyes out. You can just do that very gently and the extra solution will help to float the lens on your eye, making it easier to remove.
Generally, I recommend that or contact lens wearers have backup bottles of saline solution in the house anyway that way you’ve got something to use in case of emergencies, particularly for somebody who is daily disposable wearer I would normally have a contact lens solution.
If you’re somebody who is struggling getting contact lenses in, check out the video below using the link or if you want to find a bit more about contact lenses and 7 good reasons why you should think about contact lenses, if you’re just contemplating it then check out the video below using the link also.
Recommended YouTube videos to watch next: –
7 Good reasons to start contact lenses: https://youtu.be/qp1gDgMLm40
– How to put in contact lenses first time (every time!) https://youtu.be/bl2zvqMoqWE
Until the next one, take care.
