Properly storing and cleaning your contact lenses in the Arlington, VA, area may help reduce your chances of infection. If you don’t take care of your eyewear, you may have to replace it more often as well. When you first get contacts, your optometrist may go over a few care guidelines that you should follow.
Storage
Most contacts have to be taken out overnight. The proper storage may keep them moist and in working order. Here are the steps you may want to follow as you take your contacts out each night:
- Wash your hands and dry them with a lint free towel before handling your contacts.
- Remove one lens from your eye.
- Clean that lens with the solution your eye doctor recommended.
- Before putting the contact in its case, rinse it again to remove the dirt that was loosened during the cleaning step.
- Put the contact in your clean case.
- Fill the case with new solution.
- Remove, clean, rinse and put your other contact in the case as directed.
Taking these hygienic steps may help stave off infections. Contamination can take place in a number of ways. Touching the tip of your solution bottle to the counter or your skin can introduce certain bacteria to your contacts. If the tissue you use to dry your contact case is not clean, you may run into similar problems. Even tap water may have microorganisms that can harm your contact lens hygiene.
Products
There are a lot of different kind of cleaning solutions you can use on your contact lenses. You may want to switch products if you have issues with the ones you are using now. However, before you buy any products, be sure to talk to your optometrist. Not all cleaning solutions and contact lenses are compatible. Your comprehensive eye exam may be a good time to review the products you are using and get any tips from your care provider.