Any contact lenses wearers?

[herewegoagain432]

I’m new to wearing contact lenses, and my optician advised me to wash my hands and then dry them with a LINT-FREE towel before handling my lenses.
He really stressed the importance of not getting any tap water on the lenses from my fingers.
What lint-free towel do you use? Or do you use paper towels instead? I’d be grateful for any recommendations!! Thanks xx

I’ve worn contact lenses for over 20 years and have always just used a regular towel. When I was a teenager I went in holiday and forgot my contact lens solution, so I just soaked them in tap water every night 😱. An optician would probably faint, but nothing happened, and my eyes have always been perfectly healthy.

Would love to have my cataracts dealt with too but apparently they're not quite ripe enough and I'm so short-sighted there's a higher risk of retinal detachment. Waiting for a proper consultation about it. I loathe wearing glasses and having new eyes that worked properly (more or less) when I've worn glasses since I was 5 would be a dream.

If you can manage it later, I couldn’t recommend it more. it was wonderful to be able to see like I hadn't done since I was six or seven. Driving, watching live rugby, seeing the trees out of the bedroom window; it was massive.

I find cleaning the case an issue how is this done previously I did things wrong as the tap water thing wasn’t stressed enough. Now I clean the case with solution u know the crevices of the outer case as well as inner am using much more solution is this correct ? Previously I rinsed with very hot tap water and let air dry which was wrong and washed my face with lens in but now I know this is incorrect I have changed but the case cleaning doesn’t feel effective without a large amount or heat ? But following optician instructions paper towel actually has debris too i imagine

Infections can and do happen (I have a friend who nearly lost her sight due to poor contact lens hygiene) but it is very rare. I always used to use kitchen roll to dry my hands before putting lenses in. Over the years I’ve got more laid back though and now just use a normal towel.

I use the peroxide cleaner for mine every night and rinse with saline before wearing.
I also use saline to clean them in my hand if needed during the day or if wearing for an extended period. Plus eye drops occasionally.
I just rinse the contact lens container under hot water and let dry inverted on a clean cloth.
Wash hands before touching eyes when possible and dry with a clean towel.

I started wearing lenses 28yrs ago. No one ever told me about the water risk until DD got lenses last year!

In those 28yrs I've been bodyboarding in the sea in lenses, showered every single day, and never wash my hands before I put them in or out (unless my hands are actually dirty) I also swim in them twice a week but I'm in goggles which don't leak and never come off my face until the end. Also I don't put my face in the shower and never have done, I turn my back to the shower and then clean my face at the sink.

I am slightly more careful now I've heard about the water thing and last week a leaf dropped a load of water on my face so when I got to work and remembered I changed my contact.

But I have often been known to take contacts off at the start of a long haul flight then put a new pair in as we come into land without a mirror in my seat.

Agree with PP. There are so many risks in life you just manage them as best as you can.

I can't wear glasses, I absolutely loathe them, but on the odd occasion I've had to in hospital etc, I can't walk downstairs in them. I have to hold onto the bannister and look at the floor. I've no idea how glasses wearers cope!

And I drove in them very late at night to collect DD and even with anti glare, found the reflection of car lights and the glare too much to cope with (I was only driving to her pub job two miles away).

I do wear reading glasses over the top at work, but these are temporary and I don't need them to read my phone or a book.

Contacts are brilliant. Though the amount I've spent on them I should have put laser eye surhery on my credit card 20yrs ago 😁

I was very short sighted and was told i was much higher risk regarding cataract surgery.
I was on the waiting list for the initial consultation to see if they were ripe enough to remove but the waiting list is incredibly long in my cash strapped health board area and the cataracts were really making my life difficult. My optician suggested I get them done privately. Some surgeons apparently specialise in high risk cases. I'm very much against having to use private medical care but I decided to have my cataracts done privately and she recommended a suitable company.
So I had both cataracts removed in January and happy to report no problems with the vision so far.
I 'd worn glasses since the age of 7, and got my first contact lenses aged 20. Wore mainly contact lenses for 54 years although latterly used glasses around the house, contact lenses outside. Now I am contact lense free and need only reading glasses. Wonderful but has taken a lot of mental adjustment.

OP I was never given the advice you were given. Like a lot of people I was quite blasé about my contact lenses although as a general rule I tried to ensure my hands were clean when I took them out and put them in. Never ever heard of having to use lint free towels!

The bug from water is harmless in general unless it gets trapped against your eyes. I saw a programme years ago about a guy who went blind from it. It was awful. My optician said as it’s not treatable they warm against it but he actually hasn’t seen a case himself. It’s not worth the risk.

I put some solution in and shake it. I don’t clean the outside. It’s important to let the case air dry though as bacteria breeds in damp environments.

They're only saying lint free in case a fibre from your towel gets in your eye and causes irritation. It's not actually dangerous like rinsing the lenses in water might (rarely) be. I used a normal towel. As long as it's not new enough to be shedding fibres it will be fine.

Lint free towels? I have never heard this.

I have worn contact lenses for over 30 years. In the morning I tend to put them in straight after a shower so my hands are clean and I’ve used a regular towel. Sometimes I’ll put them in before my shower, it depends what I’m doing. When I take them out at night, I’m usually in bed with all manner of unguents on my hands 😬

@ParsonMaybold me too. I only touch the front of the lens to pinch it out anyway so I don't know why my hands need to be clean. I've usually got testosterone gel and oestrogen cream on my fingers!

I use daily lenses and just use a normal towel. Never had a problem.

I got Acanthamoeba via tap water after being a trouble free wearer for 20 plus years - I was at work and my eye felt irritable so splashed my eye with tap water (I know,I know) anyway three days later I rocked up at eye casualty with a very painful sore eye and didn't leave hospital for four days as had to have eye drops every 30 mins 24/7 left hospital blind in one eye but luckily I gradually got almost all my sight back within 6 weeks. Apparently I got off lightly! It was very painful and scary experience.

I 'd worn glasses since the age of 7, and got my first contact lenses aged 20. Wore mainly contact lenses for 54 years although latterly used glasses around the house, contact lenses outside. Now I am contact lense free and need only reading glasses. Wonderful but has taken a lot of mental adjustment.

Heh, that could be me, almost exactly!

I’ve always only ever used kitchen towel.
Im aghast that others use a normal towel!!

Another 40+ yr contact lens wearer here - only got asked about whether I wear my RGP lenses in the shower a couple of years ago.

Never occurred to me to use lint free towels.

I thought the danger with this is if you put tap water on them (and the eye eating bug) then leave them in for a long time, ie the monthlies, so the bug is trapped close to the eyeball.

I always used to use the dailies and although I was careful not to do anything crazy like put them in tapwater before putting them in, I never had any issues with them in 10 years or so of using them. Just generally washed hands, dried them on clean towel and put them in. Obviously if you use the same towel that you use to dry yourself with that isn't good !

I did have some issues hurting my eyes taking them in and out but that is another story.

My understanding is soft lenses sit closely on the eyeball which creates a warm receptive surface (much like the soggy skin you get from wearing a plaster) for any bacteria which finds its way beneath the lens.

RGPs "float" on the eye, so are effectively rinsed every time you blink.

Like the other pp, I don't think twice about flicking out one of my lenses to lick it clean on the odd occasion when debris has got in while I'm out and about - but I'd never dream of doing that with soft lenses; the risk is too great.

I use kitchen roll to dry my hands - I always seem to manage to get fluff on my fingers from a normal towel, unless it’s a really old one that has been washed a million times.

I’ve worn lenses for around 25 years and just use a normal towel (that is when I remember to wash my hands before taking them out).

Incidentally, my son has just started wearing lenses and I sat with him as he was getting instructions from the optician. It was interesting that the advice seems to have changed for many things - so no longer told to air dry the case and now apparently it’s fine to screw the lids back on even if the case is still wet/damp, no longer need to rub the lense for 20 seconds with solution to clean them - just told to take them out and put straight in case, same when putting them in.

The dust thing doesn't really happen with soft lenses IME, because they are closer to your eye and cover more of your white. I wore RGPs for 20 years before switching to soft monthlies 20 years ago and this was definitely a plus, never having to take one out because of dust or whatever.

I use an ordinary towel too, very occasionally there will be a bit of fluff on a finger but you just take the lens out and rinse it and finger with more solution, one of the advantages for me of wearing -10s is that I can hold it up close to my eye and check the fluff has gone before re-inserting.

Opticians have been warning me not to get water in my eyes for the entire 40 years, I have at times showered (back to water) and swum (goggles over) in them, but I try and avoid it, I have prescription goggles instead.

if you use a towel then to dry hands before inserting lenses, how often should you change towel do you recon? As towels will have germs on.