What to Do if You Squirt Contact Lens Cleaner/Disinfectant in Your Eyes

It happened just a few hours before my wedding… One of my bridesmaids, blind as a bat without her contact lenses in place, tried to put a lens into her eye, but it felt little too dry. So she grabbed the bottle of what she thought was saline and squirted it in her eye.

To that story, every person who has ever worn contact lenses and felt the sting of solution on their eye says a loud, “OUCH!”

Fortunately, contact lens solutions manufacturers have gotten very smart. They now make sure that all the solutions and cleaners that don’t go directly into your eyes have red tips with giant words around the top that reads “Don’t squirt directly into your eye.” You’d almost have to have your eyes completely closed to miss these warnings now. But it wasn’t always that way.

Still, sometimes, we get in a rush. We make mistakes. Accidents happen, as they say. We get in a hurry, grab the bottle and… “Oh no! That’s not saline!”

So, what should you do if you get contact solution in your eyes? Here are my three recommendations:

1. Get the lens out right away. The sting won’t end until you get that lens out, so make this your first step.
2. Flush your eye out with water. Open your eye as wide as you can and use your clean hands to scoop water into your eye. Again, make sure your contact lens is out of the way, as water on your lenses is bad for them and can cause some health risks as well.
3. Wait it out. Blink a lot and don’t rub too hard, but give your eye some time to settle. You won’t want to put your contact lens back in until all the redness is gone. For most, this should be an hour or so, depending on how much solution got in there and how bad the sting is. Whatever you do, don’t try to put the lens back in until the redness and pain is gone, or you’ll just extend your symptoms longer.

If your contact lenses were exposed to water or additional solution that traditionally requires some time to wear off, you may also need to replace them in a disinfectant solution for the recommended amount of time on the bottle. If not, then you should be able to clean them with saline solution and replace them in your case until your eye is ready for them to go back in.

If you have any questions about contact care or are still experiencing pain after a short while, call your local America’s Best optometrist for advice.