Is there some trick to donning contact lenses that I'm not getting?

Factual Questions
1

A few month back I bought some contact lenses. It took me a few hours to figure out how to put them on, but I got it eventually. It now takes only 3 or 4 attempts for me to put on this type in particular. It also took me a long time to figure out how to take them off. Luckily I have found a foolproof way, by placing the head of a pair of tweezers in the corner of my eye and then moving the lens into the tweezers.

Now I’ve bought some new Bausch&Lomb lenses, which are supposed to be more breathable and thinner than the other type. Well, they are, from my single experience of wearing them. The thing is, they are so thin that it is almost impossible to put them on! Before, I would simply put them on with the lens in the pad of the index finger. WIth the new, thinner type, This is impossible as the lense immedietly collapses on my finger and is stuck there, soon to be crumpled into a ball. The single time I actually managed to put them on, I pulled my head back untill I faced the sky, held up the lens with tweezers, and dropped them into my eye. This took about 45min and a lot of swearing but eventually I got them in. I have never again worked up the patience to try more than a few times, and thus I have never worn my new lenses, which do in fact feel great.

Am I just a clumsy oaf? Is there some kind of lens applicator device I could buy? It doesn’t help that my Asian slit eyes don’t stretch open very far. I have asked friends about this and they seem to be baffled by my lack of success.

2

I lean into the mirror and get close. My close up vision is fine. Then I put my left hand on the top of my head and lay the fingers down so I can pull up the top lid. Then with the lens on my right index finger, I use my right pinkie and ring fingers to pull down the lower lid. Then I just put the lens right on my eye.

3

ktb, there is a tiny little suction cup made just for contact lenses. (A tube, about 3/4" long and very narrow.) I’ve only ever used it to remove mine when they get stuck in the wrong place in my eye, but when I first started wearing them that happened a lot. I’ve heard of people using them to place the lens, although I never did that.

They used to be more common. I had to find one awhile back and after trying several optical stores I ended up going to an emergency room, where I not only talked them out of charging me (oops, I swore I’d never tell anyone I was there) but gave me a couple of extras. They are not expensive but, at least here, they are hard to find. Check with your eye doctor/optician/optometrist.

The tweezer thing sounds really scary. If you were really such a clumsy oaf you’d have put your eye out doing this.

I must say, I did the same thing you did for three or four years. Then I suddenly started needing to get them on in a hurry, and I needed to wear the contacts and not my glasses in order to be able to drive (flunked the vision until I went home and put the contacts on, bah), so I suddenly got very good at it. Give yourself some pressure and do it fast.

4

By “pressure” I meant “a deadline.” Time pressure.

5

I detest soft lenses. They are generally the optics of the devil to me. I have no problem getting them out, but they fold and stick to my fingerttip when I try to put the damned things in. As soon as I have a couple hundred to spare I am geting a pair of my beloved gas perm rigids again. They go in without any complaints, they arent the toric lenses of evil that always shift and blur my field of vision, and since I one wore both standardd hard lenses and schlerals it takes me about 2 days go work my way back to all day use.

6

I’ve been wearing contacts for about 20 years now.

If the lenses are collapsing over your fingers, chances are either the lens itself or your finger are too wet. Your finger should be totally dry. I pull a contact out of the case and place it in the palm of my hand. Then I dry my index finger, and place the lens on my finger.

If it collapses, I put it back in my palm and sorta pour off an extra fluid.

Once it’s on my finger, I hold up my upper lid with my other hand and place the lens in my eye. The trick is that your eye has to be wetter than your finger - the lens will stick to the one with the most fluid.

As far as tweezers… ick! That sounds really dangerous.

If you’re really having that much problem, maybe you need to go back to your eye doctor. They should be able to coach you through the process.

7

I hate that you were sold contact lenses without a thorough “I-N-R” session. I hope that what I have to say will help. Teaching new wearers is a large part of my job.

I agree that the tweezer thing is definitely dangerous. Corneas are pretty easy to scratch.

The following applies to soft lenses:

In my experience, it helps to tilt the chin down a bit, so that you’re “looking up” at your mirror. This will expose more of the white of your eye, thereby giving you more “room to work”.

As far as getting them out, I teach my patients to “slide and grab”. Holding the bottom lid down with your nondominant hand, use your dominant hand to slide the lens off the cornea onto the white of your eye. It will probably wrinkle in the center when you do this. At that point, pinch the lens with your index finger and thumb of your dominant hand. Eventually, you’ll get so good at this, that you won’t need to “slide” anymore, you’ll be able to just pinch it off the cornea.

To get them in, again, it helps to tilt the head down a bit. Place the lens on the index finger of the dominant hand, making sure that ONLY the center of the lens is touching your finger. If the edge of the lens touches your finger, it will not stick to your eye. Keep both eyes open! Hold the bottom lid with the middle or ring finger of the same hand holding the lens. Use the other hand to hold your upper lid out of the way (if you need to hold the lid back by catching your lashes against your brow, that’s ok!). Now, while watching the mirror, place the lens on the eye (it’s OK if the lens is on the white of your eye). When the entire circumference of the lens touches the eye, you can apply just enough pressure to get a little bit of the air out of the lens. DO NOT RELEASE THE UPPER LID YET! You can release the lower lid, and look into the lens. I sometimes actually use my bottom lid to position the lens. Once the lens has slid onto the cornea, you may blink.

I just did this earlier today with a patient. She was having trouble until I told her she could come back another day. Just like that…pop! In they went!

Those little suction cup devices are intended for rigid lenses (the one I sell is called “the Royal Remover”). There is some sort of device for soft lenses, but you already have fingers :wink: Stick with it. Once you find your own comfortable method, you’ll be a happy contact lens wearer.

8
  1. Head tilted down (preferrably in front of a mirror)
  2. I pull down on my lower eyelid with my index finger
  3. With my middl efinger, I lightly press the lens to the white of my eye below the pupil.
  4. Still holding the lens against my eye, I look at the tip of that middle finger.
  5. Blink

Yes, it takes practise, but so does flossing, driving a car…

9

I tried wearing contacts as a kid. Never could get used to the whole finger approaching the eye thing. I gave up.

10

Thanks for the help guys. I just managed to put them on after about 15 min or so of wrangling.

I should clarify that I use the little plastic tweezers that come with the lenses to remove them. I never let them touch my irises, only the “white” side in the corner. It seems prety foolproof. It doesn’t help that my astigmatism is mild to begin with, so if I am wearing only one lenses, it is difficult for me to tell that I am wearing them at all. I once spent an hour scraping at my eyes in front of the mirror until they were red, only to discover that the lenses had already fallen out and had been sitting on the side of the sink. Luckily I wear the same lense in both eyes, I don’t know what I would do if they were different. Perhaps me and contact lenses were just never meant to be.

FTR my optometrist did instruct me in the correct proceedure for donning, and even spent about a hour coaching me untill I had them in the first time, but those were with a morerigid lens which were much easier than the new softer ones.

11

Wet Lens
Dry Finger

Tilt your head down, not up. You’re not relying on gravity to get them in, you’re relying on the shape of the lens and the saline. Tilting your head down let’s the lens rest easily on your dry finger, maintaining the correct shape and holding the saline inside the cup of the lens.

If you go the other way, you’re relying on the saline to hold the lens to your finger, which is exactly what you don’t want, and the saline all pours out, so there’s less to hold it to your eye, and it tends to flop all around up there.

12

I lightly “set” the lens on my eye, not trying to get it properly seated (this avoids the inside-out problem) Then I lift (by my eyelashes) my eyelid over the lens closing my eye and allowing my eyelid to squeeze the air bubble out from under the lens.

13

When removing, just pinch the lens and pull. Don’t mess with tweezers.

14

Athena, thou art truly the patron goddess of all human wisdom. Your little quip about moisture being key has solved my problem. All I now need to do is simply wave my lense around a little until it is DRY enough to adhere to my eyeball on the first try. It now takes me less than a minute to don my contacts with no discomfort at all.

I can now see! No more stumbling into lamposts and crashing cars!

falls prostrate at the feet of Athena

I’m still doing the tweezer thing to remove them though, I can’t seem to ge the hang of doing it with fingers alone. :wink:

15

It does take a little while to get comfortable with basically pinching the front of your eyeball and pulling on it. The human brain seems to have an instinctive override on this, which makes sense since yanking the front layer off your eye is not exactly natural.
But you will get used to it, just like you get over the “a great big FINGER is heading directly for my EYE! Must close eyelids and rotate eye safely into socket!!” reflex.

16

No problem, glad to help. I’m not called on much these days, with all this “Christianity” and “Islam” stuff going around. Just plant an olive tree or two if you ever have a chance.

17

One bit of advice I can add–if it keeps sticking to your finger once you have the lens in place, try rolling your finger off the lens instead of pulling it straight away. That helps encourage the lens to stay in place.

You’ll get there with the pinch removal technique. It’s a little weird at first, but it works well.