Contact Insertion for the Beginner

There are many reasons to make the switch from spectacles and frames to soft contact lenses. They offer so much flexibility in hectic lifestyles, virtually no thought and maintenance, and have ground breaking health benefits that glasses simple cannot offer. Whatever your reason for choosing contacts, there are general steps and guidelines that must be followed to ensure proper care and sustainable ocular health. The following tutorial is a simple and easy-to-follow guide for any new contact wearer.

As a new contact wearer, you will be given a pair of trial lens to try before you buy. Be sure to determine which lens is for your left eye and which is for your right eye. 

Wash hands with warm water and NO SOAP. Soap can leave a residue or perfume on your hands that will stick to your contact lens and get in your eye. 

If you are a female or male with long hair, pull it back out of your way. This ensures further cleanliness and less obstruction. 

Practice placing saline eye drops into your eye.

Wet your dominant index finger with saline and practice bringing your finger to your eye, holding eyelid open. Muscle memory will help when you actually have the contact on your finger.

After opening contact case, retrieve contact lens with dominant finger by sticking your finger pad into the bowl shaped lens.

Flip the contact over so the bowl is face up. Let a few drops of saline fall into the bowl to wet the contact. This will aid in adhering the contact to the cornea. 

Maintaining grip on top eyelashes with non dominant hand, use the opposite hand and ring finger to pull down the bottom set of eye lashes while bringing contact closer to eye. 

Look past contact while bringing it closer to the eye. It is unnatural for the eye to accept an object being inserted, so you'll have to keep tight grip on the top eye lashes and bottom eye lid.

Some new users find it useful to use a mirror and watch themselves, rather than the contact. 

Once contact is made, the wet lens should adhere itself. If there are air bubbles in the lens, you can use your upper eye lashes and eye lid to push out air bubbles and firmly press the contact onto the cornea.