How to Handle Colored Contacts Without Contaminating Them

The moment between taking a lens out of its case and putting it into your eye is when most contamination happens. Your fingers touch the lens. If your fingers are not clean, the lens is not clean. Here is how to handle colored contacts without introducing bacteria, dust, or lotion residue.

Wash Your Hands — Actually Wash Them

Soap and warm water for twenty seconds. Dry with a lint-free towel or a paper towel. Bath towels leave fuzz on your fingers that transfers to the lens surface. Air drying is fine if you have time. Hand sanitizer alone is not enough — it kills bacteria but does not remove dirt, oil, or lotion residue from your skin.

Use Your Fingertip, Not Your Fingernail

Slide the lens onto the pad of your index finger. Never use your fingernail to pick up a lens from the case — fingernails can tear the lens edge. If the lens is stuck to the side of the case, add a few drops of fresh solution to float it free rather than prying it out.

One Lens at a Time

Take the right lens out of the case. Insert it. Take the left lens out. Insert it. Do not take both lenses out at once and place them on a tissue or countertop. Every surface you place a lens on is a contamination risk. The lens should move directly from case to fingertip to eye with no intermediate stops.

Never Touch the Inside of the Case

The inside of your contact lens case should only ever touch contact lens solution and the lenses themselves. Do not run your finger along the inside to clean it. Rinse it with solution, shake it out, and air dry upside down on a clean surface. Replace the case every three months regardless of how clean it looks.

Handling contamination is the most common cause of eye infections that is entirely within your control. Washing your hands properly before every insertion and removal eliminates the vast majority of risk. Read the full infection prevention guide. Browse FDA-registered lenses.