Some of the best ideas come from listening to what patients have to say. Here is a simple contact lens tip from a patient. If you are always getting confused about which is your right or left lens there is an easy solution.
Once you receive your annual supply of contact lenses and are comfortable with the prescription, open the boxes and mark each individual lens package with a R or L. A fine tip permanent sharpie marker will adhere to the surface and leave a nice visible letter. For years we have marked the boxes right and left, but once a box is opened the individual lenses can get jumbled up if they fall out of the box. Also, you are forever having to look for which end of the box is marked. With 2-4 week disposable lenses it won’t take but a few minutes to put a large R or L on the individual containers and you are good to go for the rest of the year.
The only caveat is that an open or even marked box cannot be returned. Contact lenses are a medical device and your eye doctors office should have a no return policy on opened boxes. Like a prescription drug, you would not want to place a lens on your own eye that had been to places unknown and then dispensed to you, even if the lens is sealed. There could be bacterial contaminants on the container or it could have been exposed to extremes of heat, cold or other forms of chemical or biological contaminants and body fluids.
With the remarkable strides being made in contact lens comfort technology more people are changing to contact lenses that never would have considered them an option in the past. Don’t assume you are not a candidate for contact lenses because of dry eyes or bifocals. If your optometrist doesn’t discuss the option take the initiative and you may find yourself in the new world of contact lens comfort technology.