in this video I'm gonna be showing you how to put hard contact lenses in easily
these are the hard rigid gas permeable or RGP contact lenses and putting them
in can be a little bit different than just the soft contact lenses so let's
take a look
hello and welcome I'm dr. Joseph Allen here from the doctor eye health show
helping you learn all about the eyes vision and finding the best vision
products so if you're new to the channel then hit that subscribe button for me
and turn on notifications so that you don't miss any my future videos also
this video is part of a complete series about specialty contact lenses and hard
contact lenses so if you're trying to learn more about those lenses then check
out the entire link in the description below to see the full playlist now it's
important that if you're just starting off with contact lenses that you
actually go through a full fitting course with your local eye care
professional because then they can actually give you hands-on training and
be able to troubleshoot anything that you may be having difficulty with and on
the off chance that you actually hurt yourself then you're actually right
there in the eye clinic so they can help you out now whenever working with
contact lenses you need to first wash your hands and dry them completely that
is the first step that way you're getting rid of any nasty bacteria that
could actually get on the contact lens and that could get dry and yeah you
don't want an infection now if you're like most people you usually put your
contact lenses in the bathroom over a sink in front of a mirror and if you are
doing that it's important that you actually consider putting a towel in the
sink over the actual drain because a lot of times people will drop the contact
lenses and if it rolls down the drain you've just lost your contact lens and
that's kind of stinks so hopefully by putting a towel in the sink over the
drain that'll catch the lens and prevent you from losing it now when putting in
context is important to develop a routine so that you always start with
the same lens and that way you can be sure that you're not mixing up the
lenses if you're wearing one lens in each eye and they're different powers
and you mix them up that can be kind of frustrating and we've even had people
come into the clinic saying something's wrong with their prescription and it was
really just that they switch the lenses to the wrong side so yes developing a
good routine so that you don't mix up your lenses is really important now what
you want to do is take the lens out of the case you put it onto your index
finger with the ball pointing upward then you actually want to inspect the
lens and check to make sure that there's no chips no scratches and that nothing
has damaged and maybe stuck on to the surface of the
lens now to actually put the contact lens into your eye you want to use one
hand with the finger on the top eyelid holding firmly on the top eyelid so that
you don't blink and prevent the lens from getting in the eye then you use the
middle finger of your the hand that's got the lens on and then you just put
the lens directly on to the cornea now a lot of people find it easier when you're
putting in the contact lens to actually look at something in the distance
or look at yourself in the mirror instead of actually just looking
directly at the contact lens while it's getting up really close that actually
might make it more difficult another thing I might add is that some people
find it easier to look down because when the contact lens is on your finger and
you're trying to put it in it can be a little slippery and sometimes it'll slip
down off of your finger so hopefully by looking down gravity will help you out
now I'm gonna show you this one more time and I know some people if you're
just getting used to wearing hard GP contact lenses using some sort of a
rewetting solution or the actual cleaning solution this is Boston
simplice this is the brand that I'm usually using this lens you can actually
use some of the solution to re-wet the lens and that'll make it just a little
bit more comfortable when putting on the eye at least initially so again I hold
the top eyelid hold that up hold the bottom eyelid hold that one down and
then just put the lens directly centered over the people and there we go now the
downside with hard lenses if you're initially just starting to wear them you
do have to build up a tolerance they're not initially as comfortable as soft
lenses are so you first start wearing them usually for just a couple hours a
day and then as you build up your tolerance you extend that to three four
six all the way up to eight or even up to as far as 16 hours a day depending on
what your doctor recommends now of course occasionally the lens may
actually dissenter and find its way off to the side of the eye or maybe
underneath the lid and there's a few ways that I'm gonna show you how to
troubleshoot that and get it back to the center of the eye
okay so right now the lens is actually way off here to the side of my eye and
you can kind of see it there basically what you want to do is that if you're
feeling it over here to the side you want to first locate where it's at
either in a mirror or I have a friend kind of help you but usually you can
feel it what you do is you actually look the opposite direction have it look the
opposite direction of where the is that you use your fingers and you can
kind of stop it use your lid use your fingers to push on
the lid and then you hold it in position and then you kind of push it back toward
the center and then look toward it and there we go it's back in the position
now of course when I'm showing it it looks a lot easier than it probably is
but I think the hardest part is if the lens ever gets stuck underneath the top
eyelid be sure that it can't go behind the eye
you actually have tissue around the eye that prevents it from actually getting
behind the eye but if it actually gets stuck underneath the eyelid it can be a
little bit irritating but you basically do the same thing you actually will look
down try to find it stuck underneath your eyelid with your finger and you
basically kind of encourage it downward and then as you get it closer downward
it either gets into place or you can look up and then your cornea and the
lens will basically kind of adhere together and then it'll be back into
place of course if you have difficulties where it's actually stuck in the eye and
you can't get it out or something like that make sure you call your local eye
care professional because they can help you out so Wilde's question of the day
why are you wearing hard specialty contact lenses is it because you have
some sort of a disease like keratoconus or a high amount of astigmatism or are
you somebody who just really demands very sharp vision and you can only get
that with specialty contacts go ahead and comment in the section below
so hey thank you so much for watching if you got value out of this video hit that
like button for me if you'd like to learn more about specialty contact
lenses including how to take them out in a couple cool ways to do that I've
included that video in a complete series about specialty hard contact lenses if
you want to check that out you can click or tap this link over here to this side
or if you'd like to see another full video from doctor eye health you can click or
tap the link and down over here again this is dr. Joe Allen here from doctor eye
health helping you learn about the eyes vision and finding the best vision
products keep an eye on it we'll talk to you soon