To ask for your sure-fire way of removing a contact lens?

Did you get it sorted, @TimeIy ?

Just to add that contrary to the poster directly above, I found monthlies much harder to get in and out - dailies just seem to stay more hydrated in my eye, and are less likely to scratch it I think - so it's horses for courses!

Agree with @Ponderingwindow
My eyes get very dry and dailies really stick to my eyes badly and are almost always difficult to remove because they are so thin. I wear monthlies and have a much easier time. I will saturate my eye with saline lens cleaner, like doing an eye wash, and like prev poster said, wait a bit and try again. Try using a magnifying mirror to see if you can see the contact's blue rim on you eye as well. I also keep my nails cut short or I end up scratching my eye.

Sometimes there isn’t a contact lens in your eye anymore and you just don’t realize.

put a ton of eye drops in your eye and go lay down with your eyes closed for 10 minutes or so. Just let everything mellow.

Then cover your other eye and check your vision. does your vision seem corrected or not?

if yes, now try removing your rehydrated contact lens. If not, you probably popped it out earlier and dropped it.

One time this happened- I used a cotton bud to lift my eyelid and could see the edge of the lense.
lots of massaging the eyelid and it went back into place.

it’s scary when it happens!

I pinch with my thumb & knuckle of my index finger, years of wearing lenses & nail extensions made this the safest method for me. Like op have said, loads of lubricating eye drops & it should appear.

Ugh, I am a veteran at this (i.e. getting the bugger stuck, sadly not getting them out).

A while back I had this problem and eventually came to the conclusion it MUST have come out but something was still irritating my eye. I went to Specsavers (my usual optician) and the lady there used iodine dye and could see that a bit had chipped off, as it were, and had scratched my eyeball, but couldn't find her bit itself 😳

Long story short it wound its way out later after a LOT of eye baths (I ❤️ eye baths) and the scratches healed pretty quickly. I find the Systane lubricant drops are the most effective. Very best of luck!!

This is so helpful, I've grown my nails long and can't pinch them any more. Thank you!

Any optician should see you with that sort of problem but it might be sensible to go somewhere with enough staff to have a contact lens specialist on site.

Have you got an eye bath? Bathing your eye with sterile saline would reduce the surface tension between your eye and the lens, if it's still there, and might help it come out.

Any specsavers will help you for sure and tbh I imagine any opticians would. They're healthcare professionals, they're not going to turn to away with something in your eye because you're not a customer (that's my experience anyway when I wandered into a optical express, I think, thinking I had grazed my eye)

Usually when I thought one really wasn’t coming out it was because it was already out.

This

Yeah I would have thought so Timely you are a customer. Good luck with it!

Garden hose

Stretch your eyelids open as wide as possible with your finger.

Make several blinking motions but don't blink enough to close your eye.

This usually dislodged it for me.

If you still think it's there in the morning, pop into Specsavers in the morning and they'll put in coloured drops to find it.

This often works for me. Open your eye by grabbing the top eyelid and lower in the same way you do when you put them in. Then look left then right and do a big blink. 8 times out of ten it works for me. Failing that I wipe my eye with mak-up remover and it often pushes it to a place I can pinch it out.

Happens to me a couple of times a month or so that a contact lens gets stuck somewhere behind my eye. I close the eye where I can feel the contact lens being stuck in, rub the eyelid (not the eye directly) with my fingers in a circular motion to bring it out towards the iris. I then open my eyes and the contact lens usually appears on the far side of my eye or at the top under my eyelid. I grab it by sliding it down gentle with a finger, essentially poking myself in the eye until it glides out.

Make sure to use eye drops and have newly cleaned, dry hands. I made the mistake once and ended up visiting the eye hospital in Marylebone. Contact lenses can be tricky!

Is it definitely still in there? When I used to wear contacts and spent an age trying to get the left one out, eye was bright red and puffy before I realised it was already out and sitting on my foot!
id obviously managed to flick it out and not realised.

Ouchy. I feel your pain. Its likely that your eyes a little dry so it's stuck on a bit too tightly. I'd put a few comfort drops in, drink a big glass of water and then try again in 15 minutes.
Always helps me if my hands are cold and damp when removing. I wash them well in cold water first, then towel dry and then pop a little bit of contact lens solution onto my thumb and finger and just Sweep it off the front of the eye.
Wear glasses tomorrow if you can as your eye may need a bit of time to calm down.

Check in the corners of your eye in case it’s got folded up in there, but 9 times out of 10 when this happens, it’s fallen out and I haven’t realised and I then spend 30 mins making my eye red trying to find it. If it’s still there it will make itself known.

If it’s definitely still in the eye, I close the eye and v gently massage all over my eyelid and sometimes that shifts it back into place so I get it out

You can use a torch in the bathroom mirror to try and spot a rogue contact that is hiding somewhere in your eye socket. It's happened to me a handful of times over the years. I've always managed to blink them back round by swirling my eyeball around a bit.