Contacts

[Cloral]

I'm sure some people here must wear contacts. I went Friday to the eye doctor to try some out. I think I've got the hang of getting them out, but putting them is still giving me trouble. What sort of tricks could I try to make sticking my finger in my eye a bit easier? I would really appreciate any advice you've got.

[phattonez]

What I do is look away when I am putting them in, since I cannot put them on my pupil. I put them on the white area on the side further from the nose for each eye, move my eye so that they move toward the pupil, and then blink as they are almost completely on the pupil. I have noticed that when I put them on the side closer to my nose, they fall out.
Before I put them on, I take them out of the solution, hold it on the edge, dip them in the solution, take them out, and then put them on my eye. This ensures that the contact is clean so that I don't have to waste time taking them out when they are not clean.

[Kryten]

Are they "soft" (ex. Toric) lenses or "hard"? I used soft lenses for a while, and my doctor had instructed me to use one hand to hold my lids and the other to insert the contact. I found that extremely difficult, and quickly developed my own approach.

I have no idea what your doctor recommended, but this is what I worked out:
- Place the lens on the pointer finger of your target side's hand. Be sure your finger is nice and lubed up ( ).
- Pull your bottom lid down with your middle finger of the same.
- Reach over the top with your other hand and hold your upper lid with that middle finger (pointer would work too, I imagine). Don't worry much about pulling it up, just try to keep it from squinting.
- Insert the lens with the target side's pointer finger.
- Release the bottom lid first. If you have trouble getting the lens to stay seated, I've sometimes found that "snapping" the bottom lid (pulling it straight outward a little and letting go, resulting in a slight "snap" sound) can help.

Be sure you hold the lens with the "weighted" end (for soft lenses, if you squeeze it, you can feel the thicker part) straight down, since it needs to end up that way in your eye in order to seat properly.

While this method does make it easier to drop the lens (you're holding it with one finger and don't have another available for support), it's much easier to navigate your finger into place, since having another finger already positioned right below it allows your mind to automatically judge proper distance and position without any real thought, and also helps steady your hand. Much better than trying to bring your opposite hand around, hold it steady, and get it in the right position.

Have fun. The visual quality so much more better than with glasses, but I found the discomfort in wearing them (I have extremely dry eyes) at work too much. I would have to put drops in at least once every half hour, and it got annoying. Saving up for laser surgery now .

[Raichu86]

I love my contacts. I've had them for about 1.5 years now, and putting them in and taking them out has become very easy. I don't even need a mirror anymore. Here's how I take my soft lenses out:

1. Use index finger to slide lens off to the outer side of the eye.
2. Use thumb and index finger to push opposite sides of the lens toward each other, so the lens pops up in the middle. Be careful, squeezing too hard could tear the lens depending on what it's composed of.
3. The lens should easily stick to index finger now; wipe it out, being careful not to drop it.

If you have difficulty keeping your eyes open through this, you'll have to use your other hand to hold them open, I guess. I used to have a very hard time with this because I couldn't stop myself from blinking... now I can mess with my eyes all I want without blinking.

[SSJ3500]

The best thing you could do is just try the stuff they tell you to do and just change it a bit until you just get used to it. You should automatically pick up some tricks to it after a while.

[Rijuhn]

To be honest I only had trouble getting my contacts in the first week. After that I had the hang of it. I prefer using my middle finger on my right hand and balancing the contact on the tip of that finger to apply my contact to both eyes. I also hold down my eyelid with the index finger on my left hand and look straight forward into the contact when I put it in, but don't think about the feeling in your eye, just try to look past this object approaching your eye and you should be okay. It took me awhile to get used to doing it that way, but it works best for me.

[Cloral]

Thanks for the advice all. I think I'm really starting to get the hang of this.
phattonez, your suggestion to look towards my nose while I put the lens on the outside part of my eye has really helped, I blink a lot less when I don't directly see the lens coming into my eye.