How to Take Out Contact Lenses Safely
Removal is the easier half of wearing contact lenses, but it has its own knack, and getting it wrong is how people scratch an eye or tear a lens. As always, your eye care professional's instructions for your specific lenses come first.
Start here every time
- Wash and dry your hands with a lint free towel.
- Keep your nails short, or work with the pads of your fingers rather than the tips.
- Work over a clean surface, not an open drain.
- Take the same eye out first, every time, to keep the pair straight.
- Have your case ready with fresh solution in it.
Soft lenses
- Look up.
- Pull your lower eyelid down with the middle finger of the hand you are using.
- Slide the lens down onto the white of your eye with your index finger. Lenses come off the cornea far more comfortably than off the center, and this is the step that makes it painless.
- Pinch it gently between index finger and thumb. It will lift straight off.
Pinch softly. Firm pressure folds the lens onto itself and it becomes fiddly to recover.
Some people find a slightly different version easier: instead of sliding the lens down, hold both lids apart and pinch the lens straight off the center. It works, but it asks more of your aim, and the sliding method is gentler on the cornea while you are still building the habit. Either way, the lens should come away without resistance. If it does not, it is dry rather than stuck, and the fix is moisture rather than force.
Gas permeable lenses
Rigid lenses come out differently, because they are smaller and firmer.
The usual method is to open your eye wide, place a finger at the outer corner and pull the skin outward and slightly up while you blink. The lens pops free, so cup your other hand underneath to catch it.
Small suction removers are also available and some practitioners recommend them, particularly for scleral lenses. Use one only if you were shown how.
After removal
Clean and store lenses exactly as your practice directed and as your solution's label sets out. Never top up old solution; empty the case and refill it. Never use tap water on lenses or cases. Let the case air dry face down, and replace it as often as the manufacturer says. Our contact lens supplies section carries solutions and cases, including Opti-Free Replenish with a lens case.
Daily disposables skip all of this. They go in the bin.
When a lens will not come out
It feels stuck. Usually dryness. A few blinks, or rewetting drops made for contact lenses, will often free it. Do not keep dragging at a dry lens.
You cannot find it. It cannot get behind your eye. That is anatomy, not reassurance. A lens is nearly always folded under the upper lid. Look down, massage the closed lid gently toward the nose, and it usually appears.
It tore. Remove every piece you can see and check the eye carefully. If you are not certain it all came out, call your eye care professional.
You fell asleep in them. Do not yank. Blink several times, use rewetting drops made for lenses, wait a moment, and then remove as normal. Our guide to sleeping in contact lenses covers why this happens.
Signs to take seriously
Stop wearing lenses and contact your eye care professional the same day if you have persistent redness, pain, light sensitivity, discharge, or any change in vision. Those are not things to sleep on, and they are not things to solve by putting a fresh lens in.
If insertion is the part you find harder, our step by step insertion guide covers the other direction.