﻿That's been highlighted in the news, how the Good Morning Britain TV presenter
Kate Garraway ended up in the hospital with a mystery eye problem only
for the eye care team to discover that her problem was due to her leaving
a contact lens in her eye for at least the past week.
Now, this is particularly interesting
because of the fact that she is an experienced contact lens wearer,
and it does raise the important question of if this can happen to somebody who's
experienced at getting the contact lenses out.
How much more of a risk can there be
to those who are relatively new to contact lenses wearing? In this video
we're going to cover three important tips to help you make sure that you always know
whether your contact lenses are fully out or if they remain in your eyes.
Hi, I'm
optometrist Martin Oguzie, and this is Martin's Eye Tips.
This channel is all about helping to see
better, see more comfortably and to be less anxious about your eyes.
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Now, one of the problems with contact lenses is the fact that they're just so
thin, small and often difficult to see clearly.
So when it comes to removing them,
particularly as a new contact lens wearer you do need to be
fully concentrated on the task in hand and depending on what you've been doing
during the day and also the condition that you bring yourself
when it's time to remove your lenses, then this is not always an easy task.
I recall a case in the news some time back
about a surgeon who discovered a lady who was having problems.
And it turned out she had a 27 contact
lenses embedded in her eyes and they'd been there for a few years.
This was also a person who was experienced with contact lens wear as well.
And it just goes to show that even as
an experienced contact lens wearer you may still be prone to losing contact
lenses in your eyes, if you're not careful now, obviously leaving contact lenses
in your eye is not good and can lead to a range of issues.
But sometimes they do just hide
in the upper in particular, but also in the lower extremes of the eyelid pockets.
And if they're there long enough, the eye tissue can grow over them.
And this really is not pretty.
So here are my steps to make sure that,
you know, whether your contact lenses are fully out or whether they're still in.
So number 1, is to prepare for the drop.
Now, if you contact lenses do drop out, you certainly want to know about it.
And a common cause of confusion for wearers is when they think the lenses
have dropped out following an attempt to remove them,
but because they were standing up, they can't be sure whether the lens had
fallen down or whether the lenses actually still in their eyes.
Now, this then leaves you wondering, you know, what exactly to do,
and in this situation, not being sure whether it's on the floor
or whether it's in your eye really does cause a lot of confusion
and can lead people then worried for days about where the lens might be.
So the simple remedy for this is to sit
down, if possible, and to remove your contact lenses over a dark coloured towel.
So spread out the towel, are ready to catch any falling lenses
and the towel can be placed on your lap or on a surface that you're leaning on.
Now, the reason I recommend a dark towel is just because of the contrast between
the towel and the lens is more obvious and it makes it easier
to see the lens on your towel sometimes in a white towel.
The lens is also quite difficult to spot.
If you've tried to get your lenses out
and it's not imposition on your eye and it's not on the towel,
then it may well be reasonable to assume that the lens is lost in the eye and then
it may be worth carrying on to retrieve the lens,
or you know that you need to seek
professional help to help you get the lens out.
Number 2, keep your hands where you can see them.
So another common thing that happens is
that people lose their contact lenses by flicking it away or rubbing it on their
clothing without realizing as they rub their fingers on their jeans or on their top
out of habit after attempting to remove the contact lens.
So to help rule out the possibility
that your lens may have unknowingly attached itself to your finger and
inadvertently been flicked off as you've gone to brush your fingers upon your
clothes, then it's important to make sure you keep
your hands in front of you and avoid moving them out of sight.
So that means if you're somebody who is
in the habit of rubbing your hands on your clothes just to dry them,
then that's not a habit anyway that you should be doing as a contact lens wearer.
So you don't cross contaminate your contact lenses,
but as best as you can, you need to just try and break that habit.
If you do need to dry your hands, you can place a box of tissues
on the surface in front of you just so that your hands are always in sight if you
do need to reach for tissue to dry your fingers.
So again, here, the idea is that if you can limit all of the possible options
for where your contact lens, I can get lost to,
then you will clearly know when you may
need to worry about whether the lens is actually still in your eye or not.
Number 3, learn to reset.
The cause of people losing contact lenses in their eyes is the result of people
trying over and over again to get the contact lenses
out without stopping to make sure that the lens is where they assume
and where they think it is in the first place on the eye.
As a result, the lens can get knocked further and further out
of position until it gets stuck up in the corners of the eyelid pockets.
So the remedy here is to remember, to pause after perhaps two failed attempts
to remove your contact lenses and then at this point to reset and to start again.
So how do you reset?
Well, first, close the other eye and look
across the room to make sure that you can see clearly.
If you can, then you can assume that your contact lenses in place.
If you can't see clearly, then the lens may be out of position.
So to fix this, you can just close your eyes and gently massage the eye,
massaging from the outer eyelids inwards, then open your eyes and take a few blinks
to allow tears to flow underneath the contact lens.
And this usually has the effect of causing
the contact lens to reposition itself to the center.
At this point, you can then close the other eye and check
again to make sure that your vision is clear.
If it is, then you know that you successfully put the lens back
into the right position and you've effectively reset.
And of course, you can repeat this several
times if necessary, until you've got the lens back
into the straight ahead central position on the eye.
So now you can have a fresh attempt at removing your contact lenses safe
in the knowledge that the lenses are central where they need to be.
And this then makes it more likely now
that you'll be able to get your contact lenses out.
And once you become more experienced in
contact lenses, then you probably won't be doing these steps every time.
However,
it's worth keeping these steps in mind for the times
when you're probably most at risk of losing your contact lenses in the eye.
And these times may include when you are
very tired, when you're in a rush to get your contact lenses out.
So maybe you've had a long day and they've
been uncomfortable and you want to get them out as soon as possible.
May also be when you've had too much to drink.
Alcohol on contact lenses can often be a combination which leads to problems
getting your lenses out and problems with lenses getting lost.
And also, if you've been crying quite
a lot on the lenses are floating in tears, then that may be an opportunity as well
for the lens to slip out and you may well lose them and get confused about whether
they are in the eye or they've fallen to the side somewhere as well.
If you've try these tips and you still
feel that your lens may still be in your eye,
then you should certainly book an appointment to see your optometrist as
soon as possible just to get professional help
and optometrists. We do have ways of being able to assess
your eye and to make sure that there is no presence of a rogue contact lens and we
can help you get the lenses out effectively and quickly.
On the other hand, if you feel that your problem might be more of a technical one
and you're struggling with your contact lens removal technique,
then it's a good idea to really refresh yourself on the basics that you were
taught about getting your contact lenses out safely and efficiently.
If you don't have
that information or you're not sure how to do it, then don't worry
I've done a video on that before and I've got some useful tips that I think are
important to help you quickly fix any issues that you might have with removing
your contact lenses quickly and effectively
first time every time. To check out that video in the corner
just over here. Let me know in the comments section below,
have you ever lost the contact lens in your eye?
What happened? How did you get it out?
Let me know in the comments section below.
And I think that's going to do for this video.
So please don't forget to subscribe to the channel if you find this helpful
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I look forward to catching you guys in the next one.
Take care.