Pollen levels drop as winter approaches. Although this gives you some relief from your eye allergies, you know the battle isn’t over. Find out how to arm yourself for the impending battle with winter allergies.
Wearing contacts gives you great freedom over glasses, but for many, the struggle and frustration of learning how to insert and remove contact lenses is too much. Here’s your expert guide to worry-free contact wear, complete with troubleshooting for common contact-wearing problems.
If a contact disappears, it may have fallen onto the floor to be lost forever, but, in some cases, it could still be stuck under your eye. You may feel a prick under your eyelid after a contact has disappeared because the contact has likely folded or otherwise moved out of place on the eyeball.
If you can’t see it, don’t try to lift your lid up enough to grab it because you’ll hurt yourself. Instead, close your eye and look down as far as you can, and then, while still looking down, gently pull the lid up slowly. This dislodges the lens so that you can easily remove it. If this doesn’t work, please contact Dr. Stein for an appointment and he will assist you.
It’s not advisable to sleep in your contacts, but some contacts are designed for 24-hour wear, making sleeping in them less risky. When you first wake up, your eye may be dry, and the contact may have temporarily adhered to the cornea. Trying to remove it in this state may damage your cornea, so make sure your eye is sufficiently lubricated with eyedrops before removing the contact.
The trick is to gently hold the contact on the eye for about 1 second and then very slowly move the eyeball back and forth slightly. This helps the fluids on your cornea pick up the contact from your finger.
Without blinking, move the eyeball slowly down and then around to secure the lens in the eye. Now you can blink, and the lens should stay in place. With practice, this takes fewer than 2 seconds to do.
As a contact wearer, you should always be prepared. Carry a travel-size bottle of saline in your backpack, satchel or purse. Keep a contact case with you at all times. If the contact falls out, don’t attempt to re-insert it immediately. Instead, put some fresh saline into your case, place the contact in there, and then get to the nearest restroom to thoroughly wash your hands and the contact before reinserting.
Never rinse contacts with tap water even in an emergency! Well water and even some city water may have microbes and parasites you do not want in your eyes.
To insert:
To remove:
Be patient with yourself. The main reason people struggle is they see how quickly others can insert and remove contacts, but the people who do it quickly have been wearing contacts for at least a couple of weeks. Give yourself a little extra time in the morning to get the hang of it, and soon, you’ll be as fast and flawless as they are.
Are you ready to see more clearly? Book online today.
You Might Also Enjoy...
Pollen levels drop as winter approaches. Although this gives you some relief from your eye allergies, you know the battle isn’t over. Find out how to arm yourself for the impending battle with winter allergies.
Considered the “windows to the soul,” your eyes deserve protection. Regular visits to your optometrist can pull back the curtain on any underlying health conditions before they become more serious.
While the right prescription glasses can correct your vision problems, you may need time to adjust to the way your glasses look and feel. Find out how to make a smooth transition to wearing glasses so you can enjoy the benefits of better vision.
It's easy to skip an eye exam when your vision seems good. But annual eye exams are important for helping you maintain that good vision, by detecting diseases and other problems early. Here's why you should never skip an annual eye appointment.
Millions of people wear contact lenses — and love them! If you've been thinking about contacts but you've heard some rumors that make you think twice, this post will help dispel some of those myths, so you can make an educated decision about your eyewear.
LASIK uses state-of-the-art lasers to reshape the clear covering of your eye, correcting nearsightedness, farsightedness, and astigmatism. If you're thinking about LASIK — or wondering how it works — this post will provide you with the basics.