A contact lens stuck under your eyelid is uncomfortable and sometimes alarming, but it’s almost always easy to fix at home. The lens is typically folded up and tucked into the pocket of skin where your eyelid meets the surface of your eye. It cannot travel behind your eye or get permanently lost. Here’s how to get it out safely.
Why the Lens Can’t Go Far
The inside of your eyelid is lined with a thin membrane called the conjunctiva. This membrane folds back on itself where the lid meets the eyeball, creating a small pocket (sometimes called a cul-de-sac). That pocket has a definite boundary. There is no opening that leads to the back of your eye or into your skull. A displaced contact lens is always somewhere in that shallow space, usually folded against the upper lid.
What You’ll Need
Before you start, grab a bottle of preservative-free artificial tears or sterile saline solution. These will lubricate the lens and make it much easier to slide free. Do not use tap water. Tap water commonly contains a microorganism called acanthamoeba, which can stick to the surface of a contact lens and cause a serious eye infection. Homemade saline solutions carry the same risk. Stick to store-bought sterile drops.
Wash your hands thoroughly with soap and water, then dry them. You’ll need clean, dry fingertips to grip the lens once you find it.
How to Find and Remove the Lens
Start by putting several drops of artificial tears into your eye. Close your eye and wait about 30 seconds to let the moisture work under the lid. Then try each of these approaches in order.
Look and Blink
Close your eye and gently massage the upper eyelid in a downward motion toward your lashes. This can coax a folded lens down from the upper pocket onto the white of your eye, where you can see it and pinch it out. After massaging, open your eye and look in a mirror. If you can see the lens sitting off-center on the white part of your eye, slide it toward the center with a clean fingertip, then remove it as you normally would.
Flip Your Upper Lid
If massaging doesn’t work, you may need to flip your upper eyelid inside out to expose the hidden pocket where the lens is sitting. Here’s how:
- Look down while keeping your eye open.
- Grasp your upper lashes gently between your thumb and index finger.
- Place a cotton swab horizontally across the outside of your upper lid, roughly at the crease.
- Fold the lid upward over the cotton swab. The inside of your lid will now be visible in the mirror.
- Look for the lens. If you see it, use a clean fingertip or the edge of the cotton swab to gently slide it onto the surface of your eye, then remove it normally.
This is the same eversion technique eye doctors use in their offices. It looks strange but doesn’t hurt.
Try the Lower Lid Too
Less commonly, the lens slips under the lower lid. Pull the lower lid down while looking up in the mirror. If the lens is there, you’ll see it right away. Add a few more drops of artificial tears and slide it toward the center of your eye.
What Not to Do
Resist the urge to dig at your eye with fingernails, tweezers, or anything sharp. Rubbing aggressively can scratch the surface of your cornea, turning a minor annoyance into a painful injury. If the lens feels “stuck” to the surface of your eye rather than floating freely, add more artificial tears and wait. A dried-out lens will usually release on its own once it’s fully rehydrated. Give it a minute or two before trying again.
If you wear rigid gas-permeable lenses rather than soft lenses, be especially gentle. Hard lenses are more likely to scratch the cornea if forced.
Signs You’ve Scratched Your Cornea
Sometimes a removal attempt, or the stuck lens itself, leaves a small scratch on the cornea. Symptoms include a sharp or stinging pain that persists after the lens is out, blurry vision, excessive tearing, redness, sensitivity to light, or a gritty feeling that won’t go away. An untreated corneal scratch can develop into an infection or corneal ulcer, so these symptoms warrant a prompt visit to an eye care provider.
When You Can’t Get It Out
If you’ve tried the steps above and still can’t locate or remove the lens, see your optometrist or ophthalmologist. The same applies if you got the lens out but your eye remains very red, irritated, or painful. Eye care offices deal with stuck lenses regularly, and the visit is usually quick. They have magnification tools and specialized lighting that make finding a hidden lens straightforward.
One thing worth checking before you go: make sure the lens is actually still in your eye. Contact lenses occasionally fall out without you noticing, especially during sleep or while rubbing your eyes. If your vision in that eye is normal and you feel no foreign-body sensation after using drops, the lens may already be gone. Check your pillowcase, your face, and the lens case before assuming it’s still hiding under your lid.