The constancy may well do you in. It’s not a routine for the faint of heart. Every night, it’s the same dark night of the soul. If you’re one of the 38 million contact lens wearers in the United States, you know what I’m talking about. What has to happen now is a cleaning ritual that may break your will, but hold firm and follow through. Your contacts and your eyes will thank you for it.
The clapper may be the lazy man’s best friend, but if you’re wearing contact lenses, uninstall it. Being lazy is one thing, but when it leads to a nasty eye infection, you’ll be sorry. Every convenience comes at a price and short-changing effective contact lens care can be problematic in the long run. Electricity means damming rivers, and contact lenses mean a nightly, tedious cleaning routine. The alternative is a burning, searing eye infection that will have you on antibiotics and light-aversion therapy for weeks.
It’s an old saw you can’t escape: an ounce of prevention and a pound of cure. Make it a nightly ritual to wash your hands and then your contacts. Store your contacts in an airtight case filled with sterile hydrating solution. Some of the no-rub cleaning solutions can also double as storage solution. In fact, these cleaning solutions can penetrate deep into the molecular structure of your contacts, getting them that much cleaner by morning.
You’ll never know the comfort of clean contacts unless you’re doing the cleaning with clean hands. Short cuts are always tempting, especially when mainline marketing campaigns sell you no-rubs as being hassle free. A quick rinse with dirty hands is a waste of time, not matter what solution you use. Of course, if you manage to be clean throughout the entire process and then tore your lenses in no-so-clean solution, you’ve just struck out.
Avoiding the worst-case scenario is a matter of precautions. Have a hydrating, no-rub solution on hand and a sterile contact overnight case as well. You will also need some soap and warm water for your hands. Short-changing the process is essentially short-changing yourself and an invitation to a host of problems.
The best contact lens care methods are the ones that are borne from common sense. Wash your hands, gently rub clean your contacts, soak them in hydrating solution, and keep them in an air-tight case.
