How to Put In Contact Lenses: A Step by Step Guide

Nearly everyone finds this awkward at first, and nearly everyone stops thinking about it within a couple of weeks. The difficulty is not dexterity. It is that your eye has a reflex whose entire purpose is stopping objects from reaching it, and you are asking it to stand down.

Before anything else: these are general steps. Your eye care professional fitted your lenses and gave you instructions specific to them, and where the two differ, theirs win.

Before you start

• Wash and dry your hands. Not a formality. Your fingers are about to touch your eye. Use a lint free towel, because lint transfers to the lens and then to your eye.
• Avoid heavily scented or moisturizing soaps, which leave a residue that ends up on the lens.
• Work over a clean surface, not an open drain.
• Always start with the same eye. Right first, every time, is the simplest way to never mix up two lenses of different powers.

Putting the lens in

1. Lift the lens out of its case with a fingertip. Slide it up the side of the well rather than pinching it.
2. Rinse it with the solution your practice recommended. Never use tap water, and never use saliva. Our contact lens supplies section carries multipurpose solutions such as Biotrue Multi-Purpose Solution.
3. Check it is the right way round. See below.
4. Balance the lens on the tip of your index finger, bowl facing up. It should sit there rather than slump. If it clings to your finger, it is probably too wet; let it dry a moment.
5. Hold your eyelids open. Use the middle finger of your lens hand to pull the lower lid down, and the other hand to hold the upper lashes firmly against the brow bone. Holding the upper lid properly is the step people skip, and it is the step that stops the blink.
6. Look up, or straight ahead at a mirror, and bring the lens to your eye steadily. Watching your own finger approach makes people flinch, so pick a spot to look at and keep looking at it.
7. Touch the lens to your eye and it will transfer on its own. Do not press.
8. Look around slowly, then release your lids and blink gently. That settles it into place.

Comfortable and clear vision means it is seated. Blurry or scratchy means it is not, so take it out, rinse it and go again.

Telling an inside out lens

An inverted lens is not dangerous, just uncomfortable, and it will feel like it is moving too much or catching every time you blink.

• The bowl test. On your fingertip, a correct lens is a smooth bowl with edges pointing straight up. An inverted one flares outward at the rim.
• The taco test. Pinch it gently at the edge. Correct lenses fold neatly inward. Inverted ones resist and curl back.
• Markings. Some lenses carry tiny laser markings that read correctly only from the right side.

When it will not cooperate

You keep blinking. Almost always the upper lid is not held firmly enough. Get a proper grip on the lashes against the brow bone.

Your eye waters. Common early on. Pause, dry your hands, and try again rather than fighting it.

The lens folds. Rinse it and reset it on a drier fingertip.

It feels gritty once in. Take it out and rinse it. Something is likely trapped underneath. Never leave a lens in an eye that hurts.

You cannot find it. A lens cannot travel behind your eye; the anatomy does not allow it. It is usually folded under the upper lid. Look down, massage the closed lid gently, and it will generally come free.

If an eye stays red, painful or light sensitive after you remove a lens, do not put another one in. Contact your eye care professional the same day. When you are ready to take them out again, our removal guide covers that side.