How to look after contact lenses

Contact lenses are a godsend for anyone who ever needed their vision correcting but felt that there wasn’t a pair of glasses they wanted to wear – but they need to be looked after correctly, otherwise you’ll wish you’d simply taken the easier option. Cleaning and disinfecting contact lenses is a crucial part of their use – here are some tips on how to do it properly, efficiently and safely.

1. It’s not just about the cleaning and disinfecting of contact lenses when they’re not in use; you need to ensure that your hands, when applying them, have been thoroughly washed using soap or another disinfectant, and then towelled dry. You don’t want bacteria or residues from your cleaning products to linger on your hands and then be transferred, via contact lenses, to your eyes.


2. Take the advice of your optometrist or pharmacists on what specific disinfectant solutions should be used when cleaning your contact lenses, as different types of contact lenses require different types of care and cleaning product, and when applied in the wrong circumstances some may damage the fidelity of the contact lenses themselves.

3. When actually disinfecting your contact lenses, do it in a clean case, using fresh solution on each occasion.

4. Make sure that you also clean the case itself after use, using sterile solution or ideally hot distilled water – cold or lukewarm water should never come into contact with either your contact lenses or their case, as at that temperature it provides a medium for bacteria that will then be transferred to your eyes.

5. To physically clean the contact lens itself, rub its inside gently with your index finger in the palm of your hand to apply the cleaning solution, unless using one of the new No Rub solutions, in which case this is unnecessary.

You can buy your contact lenses and your disinfectant solution online, for example Contact Lenses Online by Getlenses.co.uk.