Contact Lens Torn in Your Eye: Safe Removal
A torn lens is alarming and rarely dangerous, but the instinct to rub is the thing that causes actual damage. Torn edges are irregular, and dragging them across your cornea is how a scare becomes an abrasion. Do not rub Everything else follows from this. Lubricate, look, and lift — in that order. Step by…
Dr. Teresita Bollar, OD
Red Eye From Contact Lenses: When It Is Serious
Take the lens out first. Then decide. Almost every red eye in a contact lens wearer improves once the lens is out — and the ones that do not are the ones that need seeing today. That single step is both the treatment and the test. The three symptoms that change everything Redness on its…
Why Contacts Give You Headaches, and How to Fix It
Headaches from contact lenses are nearly always a focusing problem, not a comfort problem. Your eye muscles are compensating for something slightly wrong, and the strain shows up as a headache hours later — usually behind the eyes, across the brow, or at the temples. The most likely cause: the power is slightly off Not…
It Feels Like Something Is in My Eye: What to Do
The sensation of something in your eye is real even when nothing is there. A scratch on the cornea produces exactly the same feeling as a grain of grit, which is why people spend twenty minutes hunting for a lens that came out an hour ago. First: do not rub It is the automatic response…
Why Your Contacts Are Blurry, and How to Fix It
Blurry contacts almost always come down to one of five things, and four of them you can check yourself in under a minute. Work through them in order — the commonest causes are also the easiest to fix. 1. The lens is dirty or has a deposit The fastest check. Take the lens out, rub…
Sanpaku Eyes: The Folklore and the Clinical Reality
“Sanpaku” means “three whites” in Japanese and describes an eye where sclera shows above or below the iris as well as either side. As a mystical category it has no basis whatsoever. As a physical observation it occasionally points at something a clinician should look at. Where the term comes from From ninsō, traditional Japanese…
Stye and Contact Lenses: What to Do
Do not wear contact lenses while you have an active stye. The lens traps bacteria against an already infected lid, prolongs the episode, and risks moving the infection onto the cornea. Glasses for a week is the whole treatment plan as far as lenses go. What a stye is An acute bacterial infection of a…
Contact Lens Stuck in Your Eye: A Calm Guide
A contact lens cannot get lost behind your eye. It is anatomically impossible. The conjunctiva folds back from your eyelids onto the eyeball and forms a closed pocket. Knowing that takes most of the panic out of the next ten minutes. Almost always, it is dry — not stuck A soft lens that has dehydrated…