Hygiene

The most important tips for maintaining good hygiene in order to wear your contact lenses safely and responsibly.

Wearing contact lenses safely and responsibly

Clean hands are very important when inserting, removing and cleaning contact lenses. Therefore, always wash your hands carefully with soap and water. Then dry them with a lint-free towel.

Since it isn’t desirable for contact lenses to come into contact with water, the advice not to shower with contact lenses may seem superfluous. Yet it turns out that many people think there’s nothing wrong with showering with contact lenses. However, don’t do this. There is a considerable risk of infection.

Always clean your lenses immediately after taking them out. If you put off cleaning until the next morning, the deposit is often more difficult or even impossible to remove. After removal, place the contact lens in your palm with a few drops of cleaning solution. Rub the lens clean with your index finger or little finger for 20 seconds. Many manufacturers of solutions for soft contact lenses put ‘no rub’ on the bottle. However, it is also advisable to clean the lens in the palm of your hand with this solution to remove dirt.
We recommend not using tap water to rinse a rigid contact lens. In exceptional cases where tap water has been used to rinse off the cleaning solution, we recommend rinsing the lens with conditioning solution or saline and then rubbing it with the conditioning solution. After that, the lens should be kept in storage solution overnight. Never rinse a soft contact lens under the tap.

Always use the solution recommended by your contact lens specialist. Certain combinations of contact lenses and solutions produce a reaction between the contact lens material and the solution. This reaction can be harmful to the eye. Solutions have a limited shelf life after opening. Check the package leaflet of your solution to see how long it can be stored after opening. For example, if this is two months, write the expiry date on the bottle after opening it.
Close solution bottles after use.
Do not mix the solution with other products.
Store the solution between 4°C and 25°C.
Do not transfer the solution into a smaller bottle.

After insertion, rinse your contact lens case with contact lens solution (never with water!). Then dry the case with a clean, lint-free tissue. Replace your contact lens case regularly: our advice is to do this every three months.

Do you use a contact lens remover? Then clean it with the contact lens cleaner after use and rinse it with storage solution or saline solution (never with water!). Then dry the remover with a clean, lint-free tissue. Replace the remover every three months.

It is better not to keep your contact lenses and solution in the bathroom. It is often hot and humid in the bathroom, i.e. good conditions for bacteria.

Swimming with contact lenses is not recommended. Rigid contact lenses can easily be lost. Soft contact lenses, on the other hand, are like a sponge. They absorb everything in the swimming water, including bacteria. That’s why we recommend wearing daily contact lenses and goggles while swimming.

Swimming with contact lenses is not recommended. Water (both surface water and pool water) contains organisms that can cause serious eye infections. With rigid lenses, these organisms adhere to the lens surface and are difficult to remove. You can also easily lose rigid contact lenses in the water. Soft lenses are like a sponge. They absorb everything in the swimming water, including bacteria, etc. We therefore recommend wearing daily contact lenses while swimming and throwing them away immediately afterwards. In addition to daily lenses, we recommend wearing tightly closing goggles when you go swimming. This minimises the risk of a nasty eye infection.
You can certainly wear eye makeup, but there are a few restrictions. Makeup with a granular consistency can cause problems. Like mascara with mink hair that makes lashes look longer and fuller. The hairs can easily get on the lens or cause irritation. You should also be careful with eyeliner or kohl pencils, as these products are usually applied to the edge of the eyelid. It is better to apply them just outside the eyelash line. When you come to pick up your lenses, a Visser Contactlenzen employee can inform you about this subject. Eye makeup shouldn’t be a problem as long as you take a few precautions. The best order is to put your in lenses first and then apply your makeup. For removal, remove the lenses first and then the makeup.