Circle Lens Care
So I figure I need to post something like this up on the blog even though there are many other sites that have extensive steps on how to take care of your contact lenses. The reason why I’ve decided to do this is because I frequent the Gaia Circle Lens Thread and I lurk around Soompi’s Circle Lens Thread very often and I see questions come up about how to care for contact lenses from first time users. The answers are always the same and it’s a bit repetitive each time the question is asked. So in order to save your eyes from catching and infection or worse here are some tips and advice one should take when caring and handling contact lenses.
First off, if you are thinking of wanting to try or wanting to wear contact lenses instead of glasses go see a optometrist first. The doctor can check your eye sight and get your measurement for a contact lens fitting. This also a must for people who don’t need corrective contact but want to wear costume or color contacts. I never actually went to an optometrist and it’s probably a stupid thing on my part and even though I’ve done so many research on contact lenses and how to handle them I would still recommend anyone that is new at wanting to wear contact lenses to go see an eye doctor.
Next thing is after you get fitted and get your prescription for contact lenses you should get the necessary items for caring for contact lenses. A bottle of contact lens solution because this is what you will be mainly using most of the time to soak, clean and manage your lens moisture. I highly recommend Bio True by Bausch and Lomb. I’ve had very very little discomfort with this lens solution and very little day with dried eyes. I mean during my trip to Anaheim for Blizzcon, I’ve worn my contact lens for a whole 12 hours straight and no slight discomfort at all. Another good lens solution I would recommend is the Opti-free Replenish. This was my go to contact solution before Bio True.
Lens cases are always a must to have to store your contacts in, and it is recommended to change your contact lens case every 6 months. I have purchased contact lens cases in bulk from ebay and have them stored in a box for when I need to change them out. I also would buy extra contact lens cases when I order my lenses as well especially for lenses that will is meant to last for a year.
Now when handling lenses when you are getting your new pair of lens for the first time you should really soak the lenses in the solution of your choice in your lens case for SIX (6) hours at most. You can probably get away with a four (4) hour soaking but six hours is what you want to be sure that the solution it was in has been soaked out of the lens. You can also disinfect them with Clear Care system for contact lenses which again will take six hours. You do not want to just soak the lens in Clear Care solution and then put them on your eye. The Clear Care solution itself is peroxide base and will burn your eyes badly. Use the lens case it comes with because the lens basket contains a ionizer that neutralizes the peroxide from the clear care solution making it bubble and giving your lenses a DEEP CLEAN rinse in the case. I use Clear Care once every two weeks for deep cleaning my most used lenses, and once a month for any lenses I haven’t used in over two weeks.
If you are impatient and want to wear your lens right away there is a way to soak your lens for 6 minutes and then it would be ready to wear. I’m talking about an Ultra Sonic lens cleaner. It’s an automatic lens cleaner that uses ultrasonic waves to clean your lenses. No we’re not talking about battery operated automatic lense cleaner at all. The ultra sonic lens cleaner is very quiet you can barely hear it hum when it’s in use and there is a two minute cleaning and a five minute clean which also heats the lens a bit so the instead of soaking it for six hours you can do it less than five minutes. I own one of these and it’s amazing, but I will leave that in a later review.
When handling lens keep your hands clean at all times, wash your hands with warm water and antibacterial soap. If you don’t seem to have access to water and soap then be sure to have hand sanitizer. I prefer Purell because all the other off brand hand sanitizer seem to leave a residue on your hands and when that transfers to your lenses and you put those lens in your eyes they burn really badly, and this is after I wait for the sanitizer to dry out. Keep your hands clean and it will lead to less to no risk of eye infection.
Always put contact lens in new solution after you have worn them. This will keep them fresh and not feel so dingy after you try them on again. If you haven’t worn your lens for a while you might want to change it’s solution frequently to keep it in fresh solution. Most solution instructions will say to change every 30 days if you aren’t wearing your contacts, I change mine every 2 weeks if I can remember. For lenses that I have forgotten to change the solution in I would just throw them away because they end up being dried up because solution is like water it evaporates leaving the lens to dry up in the case. Once the lens dry up in the case cause of evaporated solution I would not want to put it back in my eye because the solution in the lens also dries up into a murky gel like residue. Do not take the chance to rehydrate the lens, because it might already be damage from drying up and the hard gel.
When cleaning your lenses DO NOT clean them with tap water. Use either Clear Care, your chosen contact lens solution, or an automatic/ultrasonic cleaner with contact lens solution to clean your lenses. Tap water may contain bacteria that can be harmful to the eye if absorbed by the lenses and put into the eye.
DO NOT FALL ASLEEP IN YOUR LENSES. Cannot stress this enough, unless your contact lens are made for you to sleep in them other lenses like Circle Lens are NOT made that way and so you must remember to take your lenses off before you go to sleep. You’re not blinking when you’re sleeping so your eyes will not get hydrated with your tears. Each time you blink a little bit of tear flows and moistens your eyes to keep it hydrated and gives your eyes oxygen. I have heard horror stories of people sleeping with their contacts on only to find out the next day that they need to go see the doctor cause they went blind and cause they were sleeping with their contacts on.
Once you start feeling discomfort from lenses it might be time to throw them out and get a new pair. Especially if you frequently wear your lenses.
(This is pretty much what I can think of right now and this post may be updated in the future with more way to take care of your lenses. As of right now this is all I can remember and gather from frequent visits to the forums and research.)
Originally published at Song of the Phoenix. You can comment here or there.