The key to getting a dry contact out of your eye is rehydrating it first. A dried-out lens sticks to the surface of your eye, and trying to peel it off before loosening it can scratch your cornea. With a few minutes of patience and the right fluid, the lens will usually slide free on its own.
What You’ll Need
Before you touch your eye, grab one of these sterile fluids: saline solution, contact lens rewetting drops, or a sterile eye wash. Lubricating eye drops also work if they’re labeled safe for use with contacts. Keep at least one of these in your bag or medicine cabinet at all times if you wear contacts regularly.
Do not use tap water. Tap water commonly contains a microbe called Acanthamoeba that can stick to the surface of a contact lens and infect your eye. The resulting infection is serious and difficult to treat. Saliva is even worse. Your mouth hosts roughly 600 types of organisms, and saliva contains an estimated one billion bacteria per milliliter, including Staphylococcus and Pseudomonas species that can cause eye infections if they bypass your eye’s natural defenses.
Step-by-Step Removal
1. Wash your hands thoroughly. Dry them with a lint-free towel. Dirty hands introduce bacteria directly onto your cornea, especially when the lens has already irritated the surface.
2. Flood your eye with sterile fluid. Allow a steady stream of saline solution, rewetting drops, or sterile eye wash to flow over your eye and the stuck lens for several seconds. The goal is to get moisture between the lens and your cornea so the seal breaks.
3. Blink repeatedly. Blinking stimulates your natural tear production, adding even more moisture. It also gently nudges the lens. Give this a solid 30 to 60 seconds before moving on.
4. Massage your closed eyelid. Close your eye and use a fingertip to gently rub your upper eyelid in small circular motions. You should be able to feel when the lens loosens and shifts position. If it hasn’t budged, apply more drops and repeat.
5. Remove normally once the lens moves freely. Only attempt to slide or pinch the lens off once it glides when you blink. If it still feels stuck after a few minutes of rewetting, stop and call your eye doctor.
If the Lens Has Slid Under Your Eyelid
A contact lens can’t travel behind your eye. A membrane called the conjunctiva lines the inside of your eyelids and folds back onto the eyeball, creating a dead end. But a lens can migrate up under your upper eyelid or tuck into the pocket between your lower lid and your eye, making it feel like it’s disappeared.
Start by applying artificial tears, then close your eye and gently massage the lid to coax the lens toward the center. If you suspect it’s under your upper lid, try looking down while pulling the lid slightly away from your eyeball. You can also carefully flip your upper eyelid inside out by pressing a cotton swab against the outside of the lid and folding it upward. If the lens is attached to the underside, you may be able to slide it out easily from there.
If you can’t locate the lens after a few attempts, stop. Struggling with your eye increases the risk of scratching the cornea. At that point, an eye doctor can find and remove it quickly with proper instruments and magnification.
Why Forcing It Off Is Dangerous
A dry contact lens essentially suctions to your cornea, the thin, clear layer at the front of your eye. Pulling the lens off while it’s still adhered can tear away surface cells and create a corneal abrasion. Symptoms of a scratch include sharp pain, a persistent feeling that something is in your eye, watery or red eyes, blurred vision, and sensitivity to light.
Minor scratches usually heal within a few days. Larger abrasions carry more serious risks: infection, corneal ulcers, inflammation of the iris, and a condition called recurrent erosion syndrome where the top layer of the cornea repeatedly breaks down, causing episodes of pain and blurred vision that can recur for months. Scratches that don’t heal properly or become infected can lead to permanent scarring and vision loss.
What to Do After Removal
Once the lens is out, your eye will likely feel irritated. Apply preservative-free artificial tears to soothe the surface and keep it lubricated. Switch to your glasses for the rest of the day to give your cornea time to recover. If the lens was stuck long enough to cause redness or discomfort, consider wearing glasses for a full 24 hours before reinserting contacts.
Inspect the removed lens. If it’s torn or a piece is missing, that fragment may still be in your eye. Flush with saline and check under your lids. If you can’t account for the whole lens, see your eye doctor.
Preventing Dry, Stuck Lenses
Lenses dry out for a handful of predictable reasons, and most are avoidable. Wearing the same pair too long is the most common culprit, especially overnight wear, which starves your cornea of oxygen and accelerates moisture loss. Soft lenses in particular can absorb too much of your tear film over the course of a long day, leaving both the lens and your eye dehydrated.
Low-humidity environments like airplane cabins, air-conditioned offices, and heated rooms in winter pull moisture from the lens surface faster than your tears can replace it. Seasonal eye allergies also contribute by disrupting tear production. If your lenses dry out frequently, rewetting drops used throughout the day can help. You may also want to ask your eye doctor about switching to a lens material with higher water retention or a shorter replacement schedule, since daily disposables tend to cause fewer drying issues than two-week or monthly lenses.
Keeping a small bottle of saline or rewetting drops in your bag means you can rehydrate a lens the moment it starts feeling tight, well before it dries enough to stick.