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Hygiene is critical to wearing your contact lenses safely.

Contact lenses can significantly improve your vision, but it’s essential to care for them properly to avoid potentially serious infections or other problems.

These recommendations will help extend the life of your contact lenses and keep your eyes safe and healthy. 

Your lens insertion and removal routine

• Before you handle contacts, wash and rinse your hands with a mild soap.
• Make sure the soap doesn’t have perfumes, oils, or lotions. They can leave a film on your hands.
• Dry your hands with a clean, lint-free towel before touching your contacts.
• It’s a good idea to keep your fingernails short and smooth so you won't damage your lenses or scratch your eye when inserting or removing your contacts.
• Lightly rubbing your contact in the palm of your hand with a few drops of solution helps remove surface build-up.
• Rinse your lenses thoroughly with a recommended solution before soaking the contacts overnight in a multi-purpose solution that completely covers each lens.
• Store lenses in the proper lens storage case.
• Don't use tap water or saliva to wash or store contact lenses or lens cases.
• If you use hair spray, use it before you put in your contacts.
• Put on eye makeup after you put in your lenses. Take them out before you remove makeup.
• Always follow the recommended contact lens replacement and wearing schedule prescribed.

Your supplies

• Use doctor-recommended solution.
• Rub and rinse your contact lens case with sterile contact lens solution. Never use water.
• Clean the case after each use.
• Replace your contact lens case at least once every three months. 
• Don’t “top off” solution. Use only fresh contact lens disinfecting solution in your case. 
• Never mix fresh solution with the old or used solution.
• Change your contact lens solution according to the manufacturer's recommendations.

Your eye doctor

• Visit us yearly or as often as recommended.
• Ask us if you have questions about how to care for your contacts and case or if you are having any difficulties.
• Remove your contact lenses immediately if your eyes become irritated. Call us and let us know what’s going on.
• Call us if you have any sudden vision loss, blurred vision that doesn’t get better, light flashes, eye pain, infection, swelling, unusual redness, or irritation. 

Wear your contacts safely

• Some contacts need special care and products. Always use the disinfecting solution, eye drops, and enzymatic cleaners your doctor recommends. Some eye products or eye drops aren’t safe for contact wearers.
• Saline solution and rewetting drops do not disinfect lenses.
• Use a rewetting solution or plain saline solution to keep your eyes moist.
• Don’t wear your contacts when you go swimming in a pool or at the beach.
• Don't sleep in your contact lenses unless prescribed by your eye doctor.
• Don’t clean or store your contacts in water.
• See us for your regularly scheduled contact lens and eye examination.
• If you think you’ll have trouble remembering when to change your lenses, ask for a chart to track your schedule or make one for your needs.

Be sure to call us if you have any questions about caring for your contact lenses or if your eyes are having problems.

Christmas is one of the most joyful times of the year... thoughts of cookies, decorations, family gatherings, and toys abound. Birthday parties for kids add to the list of wonderful memories as well. But there are a few toys that may not make memories so fun because of their potential for ocular harm. The American Optometric Association lists dangerous toys each year to warn buyers of the potential harm to children’s eyes that could occur because of the particular design of that toy.

Here is a sample of that toy list:

• Laser toys and laser pointers, or laser sights on toy guns pose serious threat to the retina, which may result in thermal burns or holes in the retina that can leave permanent injury or blindness. The FDA’s Center for Devices and Radiological Health issues warnings on these devices at Christmas peak buying times.
• Any type of toy or teenage gun that shoots a projectile object. Even if the ammo is soft pellets, or soft tipped it can still pose a threat. Even soft tipped darts are included in this harmful toy list. A direct hit to the eye can be debilitating.
• Any toy that shoots a stream of water at high velocity can cause damage to the front and or back of the eye. The pressure itself, even though its just water, can damage small cells on the front and back of the eye.
• Any toy that shoots string out of an aerosol can can cause a chemical abrasion to the front of the eye, just as bad as getting a chemical sprayed into the eye.
• Toy fishing poles or toys with pointed edges or ends like swords, sabers or toy wands. Most injuries occur in children under 5 without adult supervision and horseplay can end up in a devastating eye injury from puncture.

The point is, that there are so many great toys to buy for children that can sidestep potential visual harm, that it behooves one to be aware of pitfalls of certain dangerous toy designs.

A great resource of information comes from World Against Toys Causing Harm.

For more information and for this year's list of hazardous toys, visit the W.A.T.C.H. website.