An Instructional Guide to using

Contact Lens Solution

Tips & Tricks

What the Solution does

Contact lens solution is a commercially formulated solution designed for the rinsing, cleaning and storing of your contact lenses. These solutions usually contain preservatives, a buffer and binding agent, and surfactants or wetting agents, which act together to remove any build up which has formed on your contact lenses without scratching them. They also condition your lenses so that they remain moist and comfortable whilst they are in contact with your eyes. Moreover, when your lenses are not in use, contact lens solution also keeps them sterile and hydrated whilst they’re in their case.

Knowing the right way to use contact lens solution is essential to preserving your contact lenses in optimum condition until it is time to replace them. It is also crucial to ensuring that your vision and health is protected whilst you’re wearing lenses. Thankfully, multi-purpose and all-in-one solutions mean that maintaining your contact lenses has never been easier.

What Are Contact Lens Solutions?

There are a range of contact lens solutions that you can purchase, with each of them accommodating various requirements when it comes to their chemical composition, the type of lens they have been formulated for as well as their purpose. Ultimately, however, all contact lens solutions serve a similar function.

There are all-in-one or multi-purpose solutions, these are perfect for rinsing, cleaning and storing your contact lenses and they can also safely come into direct contact with your sensitive eye tissues. Peroxide solutions, on the other hand, are also for cleaning and storing lenses. A crucial distinction, however, is that peroxide solutions have to be neutralised before they can come into any

contact with your eyes.

With peroxide solutions, neutralization typically takes around six hours, and this can be achieved either through the use of a neutralization tablet with the lenses stored in the case, or via a neutralizing disc which is already in-built into some types of storage cases. However it is neutralized, it is important to make sure that you do not place your lenses into your eye until the solution has bee completely neutralized.

For the simplicity and ease of use, all-in-one and multi-purpose solutions will be discussed in this how-to guide.

Why is it Important to Use

Contact Lens Solutions

Contact lenses have been and continue to be used by millions of people throughout the world with little to no ill effects, but they do nevertheless require some general maintenance and care. Our eyes are incredibly sensitive organs, and the oil, debris, microorganisms, bacteria and make-up inevitably accumulates on our contact lenses whilst we wear them.

Contact lenses are positioned directly upon the surface of your eye, often for many hours of the day and for multiple days in succession, and improperly cleaned and disinfected lenses heighten the risk of unpleasant side effects such as infections, redness, irritation and discomfort.

With some basic hygiene and adequate care, however, contact lenses are extremely safe to use. Contact lens solutions are an important part of ensuring safety, and this is especially so for any contact lenses that aren’t disposed of after each use. Indeed, a contact lens solution is fundamental to an effective and thorough regimen for contact lens care, so that you can efficiently disinfect, clean, rinse and properly store your contact lenses.

Instructions for Using Contact Lens Solutions

1. Before handling your contact lenses, lens case or solution thoroughly wash your hands and dry them with a non-fibrous and lint-free towel or cloth.

2. Ensure that any solution left in your lens case has been discarded. It is essential that you always use fresh solution for every step.

3. Remove the lens from one eye, place in the palm of your hand and apply a few drops of solution to each side of the lens.

4. Carefully massage the lens with the soft padded part of your fingertip for a few seconds on either side.

5. Rinse each side of the lens once again with some fresh solution.

6. Gently place the lens into the relevant compartment of the case.

7. Repeat steps 3-6 for the lens from your second eye.

8. Proceed to fill the case with fresh solution until it is almost touching the brim, making sure that your lenses are completely submerged in the solution.

9. Tightly and securely screw the caps onto the lens cases.

10. For optimum de sterilization, allow the lenses to soak overnight or for a minimum of six hours.

Tips & Tricks

• Something which is often overlooked is that these solutions do have expiration dates, which will either be a definitive date or a countdown from the moment you open the bottle – or whichever date comes first. The date will be printed somewhere on the solution bottle, and it is important that you keep an eye on it so that you can discard and replace the solution whenever it is no longer safe to use.

• Neither lens cases or the contact lenses themselves can be used indefinitely, either, so it is good practise to replace the cases every few months, and replace your contact lenses depending on whether they are daily disposables, monthly or quarterly ones.

• There are some solutions which are marketed as ‘no-rub’. Despite this, it is always recommended to gently rub the lenses between your fingers with the solution gently and thoroughly, this will enable a more effective and efficient cleaning.

• Saline solution does have its purpose, but cleansing and storing your contact lenses isn’t one of them. Saline solution is only a PH-balanced and basic saltwater solution