Contact Lens
Contact lenses are a great option if you don’t want to wear glasses full time or for attending special events and participating in athletics. However, contact lenses may not be an option for everyone. Every patient should have a pair of glasses as a primary vision device. Contact lenses have been a great option for patients who enjoy the outdoors and find the Oregon rain makes wearing glasses challenging.
The healthiest choice when choosing contact lenses are disposable contacts. There are daily, 2 week, monthly and quarterly disposables available. The healthiest option is a daily lens. Inserting a new pair of contacts daily reduces the occurrence of infection and helps reduce our carbon footprint by reducing the need for contact lens solutions and cases. Some patients prefer lenses that allow for more instances of wear that come in either two week or monthly disposable options. It is best to speak to an eye care provider to discuss your day to day activities to ensure you are a good candidate for contacts.
Cleaning
- Clean your hands thoroughly (20-30 seconds) before inserting and removing contact lenses.
- Make sure your contact lens case is thoroughly clean after every insertion and removal. We recommend submerging them into boiling water for 10-15 seconds. Please feel free to stop by Eye Department and we will give you a replacement case anytime.
- If you don’t wear your contacts for a week or so, make sure to switch out the solution every 3-4 days to keep the lenses fresh and clean. This will also ensure that you can wear the contacts for the full wearing schedule, (2 weeks, monthly).
- All solutions except for Clear Care require that you rub the contacts clean for 5-10 seconds with about a nickel to quarter size amount of solution. This loosens up dirt and protein buildup on the contacts.
Precautions and Tips
- Never use tap water, saliva or moisturizing eye drops to rehydrate or clean contacts.
- Use only contact lens moisturizing drops (commonly known as rewetting drops) such as Blink® for Contacts as a rewetting agent.
- During the day, the best way to rehydrate contacts is to soak them in contact lens Saline Solution for 10-15 minutes. (The multi-purpose solution for cleaning and storage can be used also, but it’s not as effective.) Do NOT use Clear Care to rehydrate lenses.
- Please call us at Eye Department (503)227-0573 if you experience any redness or irritation associated with or without the contacts that persists for more than a couple hours. Stop wearing the contacts and switch to eyeglasses immediately.
- Contacts should not be your only corrective vision device. Make sure you have up to date eyeglasses to give your eyes a break from contacts and to wear during eye emergencies.
- To ensure good eye health, vision and compatibility to contact lenses, annual exams with an Eye Department Optometrist are a critical component to healthy living.
