What I Do to Keep My Contact Lenses Clean

Posted by Rin &thologie April 22, 2018

What I Do to Keep My Contact Lenses Clean

The contacts, the case and the travel-size solutions.

It has been over three years of my wearing contact lenses. I have now been wearing Biofinity contact lenses exclusively for a little under three years and using the Opti-Free Pure Moist as my preferred multipurpose solution for almost as long as that.

In my earlier post I have written why I have settled and prefer the Biofinity contacts. For those who have never heard of these lenses, they are extended-wear or long-wearing lenses that you can sleep in.

For long-wearing lenses, the risk of accumulated protein and debris, and infection increase as, obviously, the longer you have them on. So it is even more important that you clean your contacts properly.

Before I go on, these are what I personally do and are not meant as an advice. A complete instructions of your own multipurpose solutions or solutions of your choice should be available on the bottle or the manufacturer’s website.

Here goes the routines and precautions I take:

- I always wash my hands before touching my lenses.

- I wash my hands with a mild cleanser as I find other types of cleansers can make my eye itch. I use Simple Refreshing Facial Wash which is gentle and soap-free.

- I take care to not touch anything after washing my hands - I don't even use a towel, I air dry them.

- I’m careful not to breathe into the lens or lens case, and never touch the tip of the bottle to avoid contamination.

- I prefer cleaning the lenses using the rubbing method [as opposed to the no-rub method] as I think it will clean a bit more thoroughly.

- I always clean each of the lens twice - first a 10-second rub, next a 20-second rub with a new solution before rinsing.

- It’s better to get into a routine of removing and cleaning one lens at a time, and stick to which side you remove first. After a while, the whole process will become too mundane that you will do it almost automatically and if you remove both lenses at the same time you might get them mixed up.

Leaving the lens case to dry.

- One additional step that I have added into the routine myself: when I have the contacts on, directly after the case is empty, I pour some solution into the case and put the caps on and leave the solution overnight or a few hours, turning the case upside down in between. I then remove the solution and turn the case upside down on its upturned caps to dry off. I don’t rinse the case with water.

- I always change the lens case after a month or two and discontinue using the old ones.

These precautions might be daunting and tedious at first, but they only seem tedious if you list them out and read them one by one; because once you have incorporated them into your routine, like I have, it becomes second nature and definitely a necessity, unless you’re wearing daily contacts that is.

& More

- After years of wearing extended-wear contacts and wearing them regularly, sometimes three to four days in a row, I feel that my eyes are becoming drier. I will get momentary blurry visions and the contacts sometimes simply feel dry. If you are driving, for example, or a chair umpire or a lines person at a sporting event where accuracy is very important, I think wearing a good pair of daily contact lenses might be a better option.

- I haven’t thrown away my used lens cases. Guess what I’ve turned them into? Pill boxes.