It’s happened to most contact lens wearers at one point or another. Your lenses accidentally slide off center and gets stuck behind your eyelid. It can be uncomfortable, but the first thing you need to know is that contact lenses cannot get lost behind your eye. They cannot somehow infiltrate your brain or any other parts of your body despite the pervasiveness of this myth. It is a physical impossibility.
The membrane that protects the eye acts as a barrier and prevents anything, even something as small as a contact lens, from getting behind it. Lenses usually get unseated from the center of your eye because they are too dry or you’ve been rubbing your eyes excessively. Thinner lenses also tend to get dislocated more easily so someone who wears dailies might be more familiar with the contact lenses scavenger hunt than someone who wears longer term gas permeable lenses.
Here are some steps to follow if your contact lens gets shifted off the center of your eye:
For soft contact lenses –
1) Look down at your nose and close your eyes.
2) Put one of your fingers on your eyelid at the corner of your eye closest to your nose.
3) Gently massage the lens towards the other corner of your eye.
4) Open your eye and remove the lens.
For hard lenses –
1)Make sure you’re over a surface where the lens won’t get lost if it pops out. It’s best to use a light colored surface where the lens won’t bounce such as a hand towel.
2) Hold your eyelid out of the way and use a hand mirror to locate the lens. If you have trouble finding it, the lens may have fallen out already leaving a lingering itchiness or irritation.
3) Once you’ve found the lens on your eye, you can use the lower portion of your lid to push the lens outward. Alternately, some eye doctors will provide you with a small plunger that suctions the convex side of the lens for just such situations.
If all else fails, you should consult an eye doctor. If your lenses are repeatedly falling off center, it may be time to get a contact lens eye exam to try to diagnose the problem.