For people who wear contact lenses, caring for them should be just as important as caring for your body, any other aspect of your health, and your home. Below are five tips to guide you for contact lens care, and several websites to assist you as well. Following these steps will allow you to keep on top of your eye care so you can purchase contact lenses online with ease.

Kierstan Boyd says that the most important step is to follow the instructions you receive. There are many ways contact lens care and eye care can go wrong and adversely affect you, so by following the advice below and from the websites provided, you’ll ensure quality use from your lenses, which will in turn, help you take care of your eyes.

1. Keep your Hands Clean

OPSM provides a list of dos and don’ts when caring for your contact lenses. One good tip is the way you handle your contact lenses. OPSM offers this advice: “Before handling your contact lenses, wash your hands thoroughly with soap and dry with a lint-free towel.” This is to avoid transferring dirt and germs to your eyes that can potentially harm them. Many websites also advice avoiding moisturiser usage before handling your contact lenses. Making sure your hands are clean and the contact lenses are in good condition will help you place them in properly and as a result, allow you to see. OPSM advise placing contact lenses in before you do make up, and taking them out before removing makeup.

2. Keeping an eye on the expiry date

Just like you would keep an eye on food expiry dates and medicine expiry dates, contact lenses have expiry dates too. All About Vision states that contact lenses expire within a year. OPSM sells a variety of packaging, that contain two, six, three, thirty or ninety lenses, so you can buy them online or in-store on a regular basis, such as monthly. Where All About Vision indicate that they will last up to a year, having these monthly options ensures that there are options available, whatever your need. OPSM says to never use your lenses after their expiry date, as does All About Vision, so keep an eye on these dates and you’ll never be caught out.

3. Minimise contact with water

When handling your contact lenses, you should avoid getting water on them. The American Academy of Ophthalmology (AAO) recommends removing your lenses before going swimming as well as ensuring that your hands are dry after cleaning the contact lenses, as discussed in point one. This will ensure the life of your lenses, and reduce any negative impacts on your own vision. Ask your eye care professional about options for lenses to suit sports, or other options to help you see underwater when you cannot wear your contact lenses.

4. Wear and Replace Contact Lenses on Schedule

The AAO recommends following your eye care specialist’s plan when it comes to replacing your contact lenses. As some of you will be purchasing your contact lenses online, endeavour to keep this plan handy so you will never be caught out. Depending on your needs, it will differ from person to person. Ensuring you follow your plan, and only your plan, will be beneficial for health and will allow you to work out when you need to replace your lenses, and where you might be looking to buy the contact lenses that you wear.

5. Never store your contact lenses in water

All About Vision’s Gary Heiting says that you should never store your contact lenses in water, as it can still contain bacteria and cause infections in your eyes as a result. Nor does it disinfect your contact lenses, but invites bacteria and germs onto them, making them unwearable. Instead, Gary states that the best and only way to clean them is in the solution provided, following the instructions that come with them.

After following these five tips, you will be able to purchase contact lenses online, care for them and ensure your monthly supply gives you the best it can give you.

Useful Apps

Technology is nearly touching every aspect of our lives, and contact lenses are no exception. This section will highlight some contact lenses related useful apps.

Contact Lenses Tracker

With this app, you won’t have to keep wearing expired contact lenses anymore. The app will give you a notification if your contact lenses expired, and will keep pushing you to changing them.

LENSPAL

This is an interesting app that provides you with timely tips (when you track your daily progress), advice, and videos personalized to your needs, making your transition to contact lenses much easier. You can also set reminders for yourself like when to remove or replace your contact lenses, and when to have a visit to an optician.

1-800 Contacts

If you need a fast and easy way to order your contact lenses, this app is for you. Ordering contact lenses with this app is very simple. If you are a first time user for instance, you would scan the lens box in order to upload your prescription or paper Rx for quicker shipping. You then use your phone camera to make a payment using your credit card, or you can simply use Paypal. You can then reorder using your secure account, or even set an auto-reorder so you don’t run out of contacts.