Everything works well in a caring hand.
Your Contact Lens is a medical prescription even when the contact lens is not meant to correct your vision. Just like necessary advice comes along with every doctor’s prescription, so it is with your contact lens. Contacts are such an amazing device to have on and requires proper understanding in usage, therefore it’s a must to have an eye examination before wearing one.
Regular eye check-up with your eye care professional is an important part of wearing contacts. And do well to always follow your eye care professional advice.
Contact Lens Eye Check Up
Contact lens Check up
REPLACEMENT SCHEDULE
We have established in the previous article that we have contacts that are disposed off daily and those that are disposed off based on a plan or frequently. These schedules are in your best interest to keep your eyes healthy and comfortable. So stick to it.
HANDLING CONTACT LENS
As a contact user, you never toy with hygiene in handling your contacts. This reduces tendencies of infection and foreign body (particles lodging between the contact and your eyes or anywhere in the eye).
Your hands should be clean and free of any foreign substances when you handle your lenses:
Holding a Contact Lens.
- Always wash your hands thoroughly with a mild soap, rinse completely, and dry with a lint-free towel before touching your lenses.
- Avoid the use of soaps containing cold cream, lotion, or oily cosmetics before handling your lenses, since these substances may come into contact with the lenses and interfere with successful wearing.
- Handle your lenses with your fingertips, and be careful to avoid contact with fingernails. It is helpful to keep your fingernails short and smooth.
Get into the habit of using proper procedures so that they become automatic.
WEARING YOUR CONTACT LENS
Always remember to follow the lens care routine for the safe wearing of your contacts
- Always wash, rinse, and dry hands before handling contact lenses.
- Always use fresh, unexpired lens care solutions.
- Use the recommended lens care system and carefully follow instructions on solution labelling. Different solutions cannot always be used together, and not all solutions are safe for use with all lenses. Do not alternate or mix lens care systems unless indicated on solution labelling.
- Always remove, clean, rinse, enzyme and disinfect your lenses according to the schedule prescribed by your eye care professional. The use of an enzyme or any cleaning solution does not substitute for disinfection.
- Do not use saliva or anything other than the recommended solutions for lubricating or rewetting your lenses. Do not put lenses in your mouth.
- Lenses prescribed in a frequent replacement program should be thrown away after the expiration of the wearing period prescribed by your eye care professional.
- Never rinse your lenses in water from the tap. There are two reasons for this:
- Tap water contains many impurities that can contaminate or damage your lenses and may lead to eye infection or injury.
- You might lose the lens down the drain.
- Clean one lens first (always the same lens first to avoid mix-ups), rinse the lens thoroughly with recommended saline or disinfecting solution to remove the cleaning solution, mucus, and film from the lens surface. Follow the instructions provided in the cleaning solution labelling. Put that lens into the correct chamber of the lens storage case. Then repeat the procedure for the second lens.
- After cleaning, and rinsing, disinfect lenses using the system recommended by your eye care professional. Follow the instructions provided in the disinfection solution labelling.
- To store lenses, disinfect and leave them in the closed/unopened case until ready to wear. If lenses are not to be used immediately after disinfection, you should consult the labelling of the storage solution for information on lens storage.
- After removing your lenses from the lens case, empty and rinse the lens storage case with the solution(s) recommended by the lens case manufacturer; then allow the lens case to air dry. When the case is used again, refill it with fresh storage solution. Replace lens case at regular intervals.
- Your eye care professional may recommend a lubricating/rewetting solution to wet (lubricate) your lenses while you are wearing them to make them more comfortable.
LENS CASE CARE
Caring for your contacts goes beyond just the contacts themselves, it also extends to the Case in which they are stored in. Follow your eye care 
professional’s direction as well as the instruction on the label of the lenses and other lens care products. Case left uncared for can support Bacterial growth. Hence, the case should be emptied, cleaned, rinsed with the recommended solution by the manufacturer, and allow it to air dry, each time you remove the lenses from it.
It is recommended you replace the lens case at regular interval as recommended also.
Someone may ask ” what about If I have reaction with contact lens use. What do I do?”
If you notice any issue with your contact lenses such as eye stinging, burning, itching, eye pain, comfort less than when lens was first put in, abnormal feeling of something in the eye, excessive watering, unusual eye secretions, redness, reduced sharpness of vision, blurred vision, rainbows or halos around objects, sensitivity to light or dry eyes you should:
- Immediately remove your lenses.
- If the discomfort or problem stops, then look closely at the lens. If the lens is in any way damaged, do not put the lens back on your eye. Place the lens in the storage case and contact your eye care professional.
- If the lens has dirt, an eyelash, or other foreign body on it, or the problem stops and the lens appears undamaged, you should thoroughly clean, rinse, and disinfect the lenses; then reinsert them.
- After reinsertion, if the problem continues, you should immediately remove the lenses and consult your eye care professional.
- When any of the above problems continue, a serious condition may be present. You should keep the lens off your eye until your eye care professional can identify the problem.
Remember, regular checkup examination is vital to your contact lens wear. Ensure you keep follow-up appointments.
Keep enjoying you contact lens and Keep making healthy choices.
Extractions and reference:
http://www.bausch.com/your-eye-concerns/wearing-contact-lenses/wearing-and-caring-for-contact-lenses
