Every person that wears contact lenses or are thinking about obtaining some contact lenses for vision correction or a fashion statement should understand that proper care and maintenance for your contact lenses is very important for the health and safety of your eyes. Caring for your contact lenses will only take a few minutes of your time each day and will help keep your contact lenses in excellent condition for a number of years. Many people prefer wearing contact lenses or color contacts to wearing glasses and with proper care and maintenance, wearing your contact lenses can be just as safe and hassle free.

The most important part of contact lens maintenance is making sure that your hands are clean and free of debris before handling your contact lenses. Particles of dirt or hair on your hands can adhere to the surface of the contact lenses and scratch the surface of the eye when the contacts are put in, causing pain and discomfort until the contact lens can be removed. Any viral material or bacteria that are on the hands can also be transferred to the surface of the eye by the contact lens and can cause illness or infection that may require medical treatment to cure. The hands should be thoroughly washed with hot water and soap before handling the contact lenses out of the case or out of the eye.

The next step in proper care for contact lenses is to use a sterile contact lens solution for cleaning the contact lenses. These solutions can be purchased at any neighborhood grocery store, drug store, or mass merchandiser. There are many different brands of contact lens solutions available from different manufacturers and it is up to the person to decide which brand they like to use the best. Using this solution, the contacts should be rinsed before placing them in the eyes and after they have been taken out of the eyes to remove any particles of dirt and to disinfect them. The solution is also used in the contact lens case when storing the contact lenses to prevent them from drying out and provide a barrier from infectious agents.

The contact lenses should be removed from the eyes according to the schedule of the manufacturer of the contact lenses. There are many different varieties of contact lenses can be purchased and the type of contact lenses that are purchased will dictate how often they need to be removed and cleaned. Some contact lenses need to be taken out every night at bedtime for cleaning and disinfection while some other types of contact lenses can be left on the eyes for a week at a time before they will need to be removed.

There are also a number of other solutions and devices that can be used for cleaning the contact lenses if the person chooses to use them. One of the most common solutions used are the protein removal solutions that removes any of the proteins that are found on the surface of the eye or in tears from the surface of the contact lenses to prevent build up and clouding on the contact lens. There are also contact lens cases that plug into an outlet so that the case will slowly agitate the contact lenses during the night, helping to wash anything off of the surface of the lenses. Proper contact lens care can extend the life of your contact lenses or special effects lenses and protect your eyes from many of the complications associated with contact lens use.