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Soap and water

No moisturizers in your hand soap!

Moisturizing soaps contains oils that will transfer to your lenses and can affect your vision and comfort. Hand soaps for contact lens users, such as OcuSoft, are great, and there are many other options, such as Neutrogena, or Dial bar soap.

Towel-dry after washing!

Drying your hands is also important. Due to acanthamoeba risk, you don't want tap water getting on your lenses, so towel-dry.

Sit or stand?

Follow the training given you at the doctor's office. Then, if something is not working for you, it's worth experimenting. Some people find it works best for them if they are seated at a table with a towel and a mirror laid flat on the table. Others do all their lens care at the bathroom counter. 

Preventing loss and breakage

You need a safe space for lens application and removal. Proverbial prevention is better than costly cure.

Spread a towel!

Scleral lenses bounce, fly, drop, roll, and get scratched or cracked or even shattered. There is nothing quite like the sensation when you drop a lens worth hundreds - or in some cases thousands - of dollars and have no idea where it ended up. And at the risk of stating the obvious, you may have a hard time finding a small, transparent object when you can’t see without it.

A towel can 'catch' a lens, give it a soft landing and hold it in place till you find it.

Cover that drain!

If you handle your lenses at the sink, use a sink strainer or (better yet) a towel. You wouldn't believe how many of us have lost a lens down a drain, or dismantled a drain in the attempt to retrieve a lens.

Lost it despite best efforts?

If your lens was lost or broken, and you purchased it relatively recently, call your doctor's office. Sometimes it's possible for them to provide a warranty replacement.

Common new user mistakes

• Using soap with moisturizers
• Losing lenses down the drain
• Dropping a lens on the floor or carpet

Things you may need in your kit

• Non-moisturizing hand soap
• Lint free towel
• Rubber sink strainer
• 3x magnification mirror
• Alcohol prep pads
• Nail trimmers

IMPORTANT NOTE

FOR INFORMATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY. THIS GUIDE IS COMPRISED OF PEER-TO-PEER SUGGESTIONS, NOT MEDICAL ADVICE. CONSULT YOUR EYE DOCTOR WITH ALL YOUR EYE CARE AND LENS QUESTIONS.