How to Clean Soft Contacts

Cleaning soft contact lenses is very easy if you know exactly how to do it. Soft contact lenses are ones composed of primarily water-like soft material. Being comfortable for eyes, soft contacts form about more than 80% of the market for contact lenses in the US.

The first thing to note about the soft contacts that you use is the type. Most soft contacts manufactured today are made from silicone hydrogels and you may therefore also be using them.

Therefore, you need to clean them using compatible products. I am using products in the plural sense because for different cleaning functions, different solutions are available in the market and in a plethora of brand names.

I would recommend that you use your ophthalmologist's advice in the matter of purchasing different compatible cleaning products because he/she is the one who has prescribed you to wear the soft contacts of a specific brand and type to wear. Even when you need to change solutions, you need to go back to your doctor to seek his recommendation for correct selection.

This is important because not all the cleaning products available in the market are compatible for the contacts that you specifically use or for the characteristics of your eyes per se. Some people have sensitive eyes and need to solely use contact lens cleaning products that are marked for sensitive eyes.

Soft contacts need to be worn only about twelve hours per day and therefore, this entails their daily removal and reinsertion. To prevent dust, grime, and germs, or lack of requisite moisture from causing damage or infection in your eyes, you need to ensure that your soft contacts remain clean of such foreign bodies. To do that you need to employ several different cleaning agents to remove dust and grime on one hand to ensuring on the other that they remain free from bacteria and fungi.

Another aspect to soft contact wear is that gradually protein in the eyes accumulates in and over the contacts. So, you need to undertake removal of protein from soft contacts once every week using enzymatic tablets for the purpose in conjunction with a compatible saline solution.

There is another maintenance schedule for your soft contacts that you need to follow which is on a daily basis. Under this you need to use rewetting agents to moisturize your contacts and use eye drops daily to lubricate your eyes. Use a compatible rewetting agent because otherwise it can either stain your contacts or your eyes or both.

A daily cleanser can help to remove the dust and grime that collects over your soft contacts all the while. Place your soft contacts in the daily cleanser immediately after removal from the eyes. Remember to wash your hands thoroughly with a proper antiseptic liquid and lots of clean water before you undertake to remove your contacts from your eyes.

Thereafter, use a compatible multipurpose solution that also helps to clean, rinse, and disinfect your soft contacts to soak them in overnight. Remember to then place your contacts mandatorily in saline solution to rinse them and store them before reinsertion in your eyes.

Alternatively, you can use hydrogen peroxide to disinfect your soft contacts. The only precaution you need to use for the purpose is to remember to use a neutralizing tablet. Thereafter, place the contacts in a compatible saline solution for rinsing them and storing them in the lens case before you reinsert them in your eyes.

There are two important precautions that you need to take when you use soft contact lens cleaning agents. One is to throw away the once already used portion of the respective cleaning agents immediately. The other is to never use a cleaning solution that is past its expiry date for sensitive eyes.