Contact Lens Hygiene: A Must For Healthy Eyes

It is the most important part of wearing contact lenses: contact lens hygiene. If you wear contact lenses, or if you are planning to wear them in the future, keeping your contact lenses clean and disinfected is critical to both eye health and the comfort of your contact lenses. While it cannot be guaranteed that good hygiene will prevent all eye infections, it will definitely reduce them to a minimum.

The first thing you should do any time you handle contact lenses, whether inserting, removing, cleaning or just handling for whatever reason, is to wash your hands with soap and water. This is always the first step to clean and healthy contact lenses.

Here is a summary of cleaning and disinfection for soft contact lenses with most multipurpose solutions (MPS):

1. Wash hands with soap and water; dry your hands with a lint free towel
2. Place a few drops of MPS on each side of the lens surface
3. Gently rub the contact lens for approximately 20 seconds
4. Rinse each side for 5 seconds with MPS
5. Place the clean contact lens in the clean lens case; fill the case with fresh MPS
6. Soak the contact lenses overnight
7. After soaking, contact lenses are ready to wear. If necessary, fresh MPS may be used to rinse the lenses before inserting
8. Always discard used solution
9. It is recommended that contact lens cases be replaced every 1-3 months

If you follow these steps when cleaning your contact lenses, you are on the right track to excellent contact lens hygiene and keeping your eyes healthy.

Each solution may vary slightly, so be sure to always read the instructions for the solution you are using.

Best Solution for Contact Lens Hygiene

The best type of cleaning solution for superior contact lens cleanliness is not a multipurpose solution, but a hydrogen peroxide based solution. Although you must be careful to NOT touch the hydrogen peroxide solution to your eyes, this is the best disinfecting solution available, and prevents the most eye infections. Solutions such as ClearCare have made the steps almost as easy as using a multipurpose solution. With ClearCare, you MUST use the contact lens case that comes with the solution, but the chemical reaction between the disc in the bottom of the case and the solution combine to make saline solution by the time the lenses can be safely inserted (6 hours or more).

5 tips to Promote Good Eye Health

• Never use water or saliva on your contact lenses
• Never use homemade saline solutions
• Do not swim, shower, or use a hot tub while wearing contact lenses
• Throw away any lenses that are damaged or torn
• Always check the expiry dates on any solutions you use

Return to Contact Lens Care from Contact Lens Hygiene

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