How to Reposition a Slipped Contact Lens
If your contact lens slips out of place, fear not. It's nearly impossible for it to disappear behind your eyeball.
- Difficulty:
- Easy
Instructions
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1
Wash your hands thoroughly before touching any part of the eye.
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2
Pull up your upper lid while you look down at a mirror to search for the lens. Pull down your lower lid to search for the lens in the lower part of your eye.
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3
If you are still unable to locate the lens, put saline solution in your eye and move your eye up, down and side to side. This might dislodge the lens.
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4
If you are still unable to find it, take a breather. The lens might work its way out if you rest your eye. Add more saline solution if your eye is feeling irritated.
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5
Once you've located the lens, close your eye and use your finger to move it gently back into place. It might help to roll your eye toward the lens.
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6
If the lens has curled up like a taco shell, move it to the outer corner of your eye and remove it.
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7
If you are unable to locate the lens or if you are suffering from extreme pain, contact your eye doctor.
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1
Tips & Warnings
A lens can curl up and lodge itself deep in the upper lid. Search carefully for it.
If a contact lens repeatedly slips out of place, visit your eye doctor for a refitting. An improper fit can lead to a corneal abrasion, an ulcer or an infection.
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Comments
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Alex Wallace
Sep 25, 2010
bhunter's advice worked, as soon as the new contac was in i could easily see the other "lost" contact lens :) it was realy easy to get it out, thanks man!x -
bhunter
Jan 30, 2010
I've found the easiest way to remove a lens that's so far back behind the eye that it can't be reached is to put a new lens on and when you take out the new lens the lost lens will come out stuck to it.
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Sep 26, 2006
I`m supposed to use a new pair of contacts every month, but sometimes I wear them longer than that and the older they get, the more likely it is that I will rub my eyes and one will get stuck folded up under my upper eyelid. Here are some strategies for getting them out: 1. Have a friend help. If you aren't too squeamish about letting someone else near your eye and you have a friend who is not too squeamish either, have them look up under your lid and gently pull the contact out with the pad of their finger while you hold the lid back and look down at them. This way you don't have to worry with looking at a mirror while you jab at your eye. Someone with slender, short-nailed fingers is best. Moms are good people to ask. 2. Squirt saline solution in the eye to dislodge it. Lean over a sink, hold your eyelid back with one hand and squeeze a bottle of contact solution with the other. You can angle a thin stream of saline solution up into places too narrow for your finger to reach. Just keep the drain closed if you don't want the contact to get washed away. 3. Wait an hour or two. Try to go about your business as normal, and in the course of your normal blinking and eye movement it might work its way out on it's own. So give it a little bit of time before you try anything drastic that might leave you with bloodshot irritated eyes. 4. When all else fails, close your eye and rub like heck. Don't put too much pressure rubbing downward toward the center of your eyeball, but rub in all directions at an angle to the surface of your eye. Rub, roll, and blink, and you might get that dang contact to move someplace reachable. Your eye will get irritated, but you might be finally able to get that dang contact. I've never had to go to a doctor to get a contact out; one of these strategies has always worked for me eventually. Of course, if I changed my contacts on schedule, kept them moist with drops, and avoided rubbing my eyes, this wouldn't happen to me so much in the first place. Good luck!
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Sep 26, 2006
I`m supposed to use a new pair of contacts every month, but sometimes I wear them longer than that and the older they get, the more likely it is that I will rub my eyes and one will get stuck folded up under my upper eyelid. Here are some strategies for getting them out: 1. Have a friend help. If you aren't too squeamish about letting someone else near your eye and you have a friend who is not too squeamish either, have them look up under your lid and gently pull the contact out with the pad of their finger while you hold the lid back and look down at them. This way you don't have to worry with looking at a mirror while you jab at your eye. Someone with slender, short-nailed fingers is best. Moms are good people to ask. 2. Squirt saline solution in the eye to dislodge it. Lean over a sink, hold your eyelid back with one hand and squeeze a bottle of contact solution with the other. You can angle a thin stream of saline solution up into places too narrow for your finger to reach. Just keep the drain closed if you don't want the contact to get washed away. 3. Wait an hour or two. Try to go about your business as normal, and in the course of your normal blinking and eye movement it might work its way out on it's own. So give it a little bit of time before you try anything drastic that might leave you with bloodshot irritated eyes. 4. When all else fails, close your eye and rub like heck. Don't put too much pressure rubbing downward toward the center of your eyeball, but rub in all directions at an angle to the surface of your eye. Rub, roll, and blink, and you might get that dang contact to move someplace reachable. Your eye will get irritated, but you might be finally able to get that dang contact. I've never had to go to a doctor to get a contact out; one of these strategies has always worked for me eventually. Of course, if I changed my contacts on schedule, kept them moist with drops, and avoided rubbing my eyes, this wouldn't happen to me so much in the first place. Good luck!
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Feb 21, 2006
I find that if a lens goes AWOL, it has almost always slid to the inside bottom corner of my eye, near the nose. So look there first - it can be really wedged in there too, but you can often see a wrinkle in the lens. Put your finger on it and slide it back across.
