What do I need to kno wwhen wearing contacts?!

What do I need to kno wwhen wearing contacts?

I just got contacts and I'm really worried about damaging my eyes. What kind of cleaning regiments do you do? Do you have to use eye drops to keep your eye from drying up? What brand of eye drops/contact solution is best for my eye? Please list other stuff that you guys do on a daily basis while wearing contacts.

What type of contacts do you wear?
I have been using contact lenses for quite a while now (ca. 8 years). My experiences:

Type of contact lenses:
I had my difficulties with semi-hard ones, so I changed to soft ones. Soft contacts are easier to handle. I really care to take them off every night and leave them in the cleansing solution for at least 6 hours.

Everyday Cleansing:
I use an all- in- one solution (from Bausch & Lomb). Some say that the acidic cleansing solution by Ciba Vision are better at cleaning your lenses, as the acid kills more bacteria. But there was this rumour that in the factory producing the solutions, the products were infected with some kind of fungus (only in Europe and I live in Europe, so I changed back to Bausch & Lomb) I'm quite happy with the job its doing. The acidic solution if you decide to use that, is for the night to leave the lenses in it for at least 4 or 6 hours in it. If you need to rinse your lenses, the set has another solution just for that.

Protein Cleansing:
If you have monthly contacts like I do, you don't necessarily do a protein cleansing. If you wear your contacts for a year, then every 3 months I think, you should be doing a protein cleansing, because some protein in our eyes and tears get stuck on to your lenses, which has to be removed every now and then. There are tablets available and the procedure is explained in the package as well as how often you have to do it.

Eye drops:
I never had problems with my eyes getting too dry on a normal day, so I had no need for special eye drops. The important thing is I think, that your lenses should be as much oxygen permeable as possible. I use contacts from Zeiss, they are a little pricier but it pays off, because they are almost 100% oxygen permeable. So your eyes can breathe and don't feel dry.

* Always always wash your hands before touching your lenses. Hygiene is very important

* Try to avoid smoky or sticky air, it will make your lenses sting because they'll get dry

* If you feel insistant stinging, burning or uncomfortable while wearing your lenses, take them off and rinse them with your either all -in-one solution or your special rinsing one, if your eyes got red, wait a little, until they calm themselves and then put your contacts back. It can happen that some larger dust particle got in your eye, which can cause the stinging etc. Don't panic. Sometimes it is even enough to blink fastly and move your eyes around, so that the dust gets off of your contact. If it doesn't go away, then do the rinsing etc. I explained before.

* Careful with eye make - up and cremes etc. (Sorry I didn't check if you were a girl ;-) ) So anyways, there's special eye make up for those who wear contacts, which is gentler and less allergenic. Normal make up can again make your lenses sting or cause allergies (I never had that problem but again you never know)

*Try not to rub your eyes, contacts may slide or even drop.

*Try to avoid sleeping with your contacts on. You would wake up with a feeling of stickiness and maybe stinging and at any case it's not good, try not to do it

* While swimming, do not open your eyes underwater, or if you're new to contacts better take them off. Some even advise to always take your contacts off, when swimming, to avoid the bacteria in the watter getting on to your contact.
I sometimes do leave them on, when swimming, but be careful, if you open your eyes underwater, your contacts might fall off ;-)

* Go regularly to your eye doctor and check your eyes to make sure everything's fine.

As said at the beginning I've been using them quite a while now, it's really comfortable and easy and not dangerous if you follow some simple rules.

Have fun!