HELP! My Contact is Lost in my Eye!

Dear America’s Best,

After staring at my computer screen for hours trying to make a work deadline, I rubbed my eyes out of pure exhaustion. Suddenly, my left eye felt strange. After blinking hard a few times, I noticed that I couldn’t see clearly out of it. I ran to the bathroom and opened the eye, but didn’t see a lens in it. I looked on the bathroom counter and around my desk, but there was no sign of that lens anywhere. My eye still felt funny, and then I realized, “My contact is lost in my eye!”

I squirted saline in my eye and rubbed my eyelid to help loosen it up, but nothing happened. I decided to finish working wearing my glasses. Before I went to sleep, I opened my eyes to see half of the lens peaking out from the corner of my eye. The lens was in there!

This has never happened to me before, so I was wondering what I should do if my contact gets lost again. Is there a reason it happened, or is there something I can do to prevent it from happening again?

Thanks for your help!

Jen in Alabama

Dear Jen,

Feeling like a contact is lost in your eye can cause a bit of panic. The first thing that you need to do if your contact is lost is to NOT panic. Your instincts were good. Using saline in the eye, gently rubbing your eyelid with your eyes closed and blinking hard are all good ways to find a lost contact lens.

My recommendation is that next time your contact is lost, be a little more methodical in your search. Start with lubricating your eye very well with saline. Then gently press on your eyelid starting on one side and pulling down. Move your finger to the middle of your eyelid and gently press down. Change to the opposite side of your eye and press down once again. Make sure to open your eyes each time to see if you can spot a part of the lens.

Try this method on your bottom eyelid as well. Blink hard and gently move your bottom lid sideways and up towards you’re the middle of your eye to see if you can spot the missing contact. If the contact is caught somewhere, you’ll probably be able to feel it.

No luck? Re-wet your eyes and close them for a minute or two. Allow the eye to relax and moisten so that lens can move freely. Hopefully then a corner of the contact should appear so you can remove it.

People often lose a lens because their eyes are tired and dry, and the lens has folded on itself. You might even find it in half. This can also occur is lenses are expired or worn past their wear date. Keep your lenses fresh and your eyes lubricated to prevent this from happening again.

Thanks for your question!