How to Remove Soft Contact Lenses

When you’re new to wearing contact lenses, it feels scary to touch your eye directly so you can take out your lenses. Once you know the technique for removing lenses, though, it will feel safe and easy to remove your contact lenses every day. Of course, you’ll want to make sure you’ve got clean hands and a clean surface before you start. Now, let’s go through the step-by-step instructions for how to take out those soft contact lenses.

Step by Step Instructions for How to Take Out Soft Contact Lenses

Let’s outline the instructions so you can get those soft contact lenses out in a blink.

1. Wash and Dry Your Hands

To keep your lenses fully hygienic and clean, wash your hands well before you touch your eyes. Use warm water and soap. Then, dry your hands completely with a paper towel or a lint-free towel. Make sure your hands are dry before you handle your lenses.

2. Hold Your Eye Open

Now, if you’re a lefty, use your right hand to hold your eye open. If you’re a righty, use your left hand to hold your eye open. To open your eye, gently pull your lower eyelid down. Keep your eye open (fight that reflex that’s trying to close it!) and look upward. 

3. Slide Lens Down

Using your other, free hand (the dominant one this time,) slide your lens down so it lands on the white part of your eye, instead of neatly resting on your colored middle. It will feel a little out of place; that’s how it should be.

4. Gently Pinch to Remove the Lens

Now that the lens is on the white part of the eye, pinch it very gently with the pads of your thumb and index finger. Just a slight pinch, only with your fingers and no nails, so you don’t end up pinching your eye. While it’s pinched, swiftly remove the lens from your eye.

5. Clean or Dispose of Your Lenses

For reusable lenses, clean and store each lens according to the lens care instructions you’ve received from the manufacturer.

For daily, disposable lenses, throw each lens in the trash can as soon as you remove it. It gets sticky after it’s been out of your eye for a little while, so you want to dispose of it right away and prevent it sticking to random surfaces.

What if You Can’t Get the Lens Out?

If you can’t get your soft contact lens out on the first try, that’s perfectly normal. It can often take more than one try until you get the lens out while you’re still learning the technique.

So first, here’s what NOT to do:

• Don't panic 
• Don’t repeatedly poke at the eye.
• Don’t try to randomly pinch or otherwise ignore the proper technique for removing lenses.

And this is what you SHOULD do:

• Make sure the lens is actually still in the eye.
• Use lubricating/re-wetting drops if appropriate for the lenses, so that you’re not dragging the lens down on a very dry surface.
• Whether or not you use lubricating drops, blink several times. Then, try again with clean hands.

You never have to worry that your lens has disappeared behind your eye, as it isn’t possible for soft contact lenses to do that. Your lens can move underneath your eyelid though, and blinking will help dislodge it.

Common Contact Lens Removal Mistakes 

Here are mistakes to watch out for, so you don’t make them while you’re learning how to remove your contact lenses.

• Don’t try to remove a lens with dirty or wet hands.
• This is very common: First-time lens wearers often use fingernails instead of fingertips when pinching. Ouch!
• Another common one: Pinching the lens while it’s still centered over the cornea (that’s the middle, colored part of your eye.) Remember to slide it to the white part of your eye first.
• If your eye is getting irritated, don’t continue to rub or manipulate your eye.
• Never, ever use tap water or other plain water on your contact lenses.

When to Stop Trying and Get Help

There are certain warning signs you should be aware of, and if you see any of these, stop trying to get your lens out and ask for help.

• Persistent pain in your eye
• Significant redness in the white of your eye
• Swelling
• Feeling that something is stuck in the eye despite attempts to remove the lens
• Symptoms that don't improve after the lens is removed

If you see any of these symptoms, contact an eye doctor for help.

How to Make Contact Lens Removal Easier

Although it takes time to learn the technique of removing lenses at the beginning, it will get much easier as you get comfortable with removing your soft contact lenses. Here are some tips to make it get easier even faster.

• Follow the same removal routine every time, so it becomes a habit, like second nature.
• Use a mirror while you learn the technique so you can see what you’re doing visually.
• Keep fingernails short enough to avoid scratching your eye, especially at the beginning while you get used to removing the contact lenses.
• If you’re not comfortable yet with taking out contact lenses, do it before you are extremely tired.
• Keep your lens solution and supplies in an easily accessible place, so lens removal doesn’t become a drag.

Get Confident in Taking Out Your Soft Contact Lenses

As you follow these step-by-step directions for how to remove soft contact lenses, you’ll get more and more confident in taking them out, until you don’t have to think about what you’re doing at all. It’ll become instinct, almost like second nature.

Good luck!