It happens to the best of us. You’re standing in front of the bathroom mirror, poking at your cornea, and suddenly realize that the little piece of silicone hydrogel you put in this morning is nowhere to be found. Panic sets in. You start thinking about the urban legends of lenses sliding behind your brain. Stop. Breathe.
First off, it’s physically impossible for a contact lens to get lost behind your eye. There’s a membrane called the conjunctiva that folds back to line your eyelids, creating a sealed pocket. Basically, your eye is a dead end. If you feel like contacts are stuck in my eye, they are definitely still in there, likely just tucked under the upper lid or folded into a corner.
Most people start scrubbing their eye when they can't find the lens. Don't do that. You’ll end up with a corneal abrasion, which feels exactly like a stuck contact but is actually a scratch on the surface of your eye. It’s a cruel trick of biology: the injury feels like the object that caused it is still there.
Why lenses go missing in the first place
Lenses don't just "get stuck" for no reason. Usually, it’s a moisture issue. If your eyes are dry—maybe you’ve been staring at a laptop for eight hours or you’ve had a few drinks—the lens loses its lubrication and suction-cups itself to the ocular surface. It becomes brittle. It stops floating.
Other times, you might have rubbed your eye a little too vigorously during allergy season. This can fold the lens in half and shove it way up under the superior fornix (that deep pocket under your top eyelid).
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Dr. Glaucomflecken (the popular ophthalmologist persona of Dr. Will Flanary) often jokes about the "lost" lens, but in clinical reality, it’s a very common reason for emergency visits. Some patients come in thinking they have a lens stuck when they actually already took it out and forgot. This is "Phantom Lens Syndrome." Because the eye is so sensitive, the mere act of roughly removing a lens can leave a temporary mark that feels like a foreign body.
The "Gentle Method" for retrieval
If you're sure the lens is in there, wash your hands. Use a mild soap. Avoid anything with heavy perfumes or oils because that's just going to sting later.
1. The Saturation Technique
Flood your eye with sterile saline or rewetting drops. Don’t use tap water. Tap water contains Acanthamoeba, a nasty little parasite that loves to eat corneas. Use a lot of drops—more than you think you need. Close your eye and gently massage the lid in a circular motion. This often rehydrates the lens and coaxes it back to the center of the eye where you can see it.
2. The Eyelid Flip
If it’s tucked under the top lid, look down as far as you can. Grab your upper lashes and gently pull the lid forward and down over the lower lashes. This can sometimes "catch" the edge of the stuck lens and drag it down. If that doesn't work, you might need someone to help you evert the lid—flipping it over a Q-tip—to see if the lens is hiding in the folds.
3. The Mirror Check
Use a high-magnification mirror and a bright light. Look in the opposite direction of where you think the lens is. If you think it's stuck in the outer corner, look toward your nose. This stretches the conjunctiva and might reveal a translucent edge.
When to actually worry
Most of the time, this is a 10-minute annoyance. But sometimes, it’s a medical issue. If you’ve spent thirty minutes poking your eye and it’s getting bloodshot or your vision is blurring, you need to walk away from the mirror.
There are cases—documented in the British Medical Journal—of people having multiple lenses stuck for years. One famous case involved a 67-year-old woman who had a "bluish mass" in her eye that turned out to be 27 disposable contact lenses matted together. She just thought she had dry eyes and old age. While that’s an extreme outlier, it shows that the eye is surprisingly resilient, but also that we shouldn't ignore persistent discomfort.
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Go to an urgent care or an optometrist if:
- You feel sharp, stabbing pain.
- You see a visible "white spot" on your iris or pupil.
- Your eye is leaking yellow or green discharge.
- You can't get the lens out after several tries and the eye is becoming raw.
Hard lenses vs. Soft lenses
The advice changes depending on what you wear. Most people wear soft lenses. These are the ones that fold and hide. If you wear RGP (Rigid Gas Permeable) lenses, they don't fold. They act more like a suction cup.
If an RGP lens is stuck, do not try to pull it off directly. You can actually cause a "hickey" on your cornea. Instead, use a tiny suction cup tool (often called a DMV remover) specifically designed for hard lenses. If you don't have one, use the "pull and blink" method: pull the skin at the outer corner of your eye taut toward your ear and blink hard. The pressure of the eyelids should pop the rigid lens off.
Preventing the "Stuck" Sensation
Honestly, the best way to deal with contacts are stuck in my eye is to make sure they stay hydrated. If you’re a chronic "stuck lens" sufferer, you might have underlying Meibomian Gland Dysfunction (MGD). This means the oil-producing glands in your lids aren't working right, so your tears evaporate too fast, leaving your lenses high and dry.
Talk to your eye doc about switching to a daily disposable lens with a higher water content or a different base curve. If the fit is too "tight," the lens won't move the 0.5mm to 1.0mm it’s supposed to every time you blink. A lens that doesn't move is a lens that's going to get stuck.
Also, stop sleeping in them. Even if they are "extended wear." When you sleep, your eyes produce fewer tears and your lids stay closed, creating a warm, dry environment that turns your contact lens into a piece of Saran Wrap stuck to a bowl.
Real-world Action Steps
If you are currently reading this with a lens lost in your eye, follow this sequence:
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- Walk away from the mirror for five minutes. Your adrenaline is high, and your eye is irritated. Let the natural tear film recover.
- Drown the eye in preservative-free saline. The "preservative-free" part matters because the chemicals in standard drops can irritate an already angry eye.
- Check the floor. Seriously. Half the time, the lens fell out while you were rubbing your eye and you didn't notice. Check your shirt, the sink, and the floor before you keep digging into your eye.
- Use the "Look Away" technique. Look as far left as possible, then as far right. Use your finger to gently feel through the eyelid for a small bump.
- If it's still there after an hour, call a pro. An optometrist has a slit-lamp microscope. They can find a "lost" lens in about three seconds and use specialized tweezers to get it out without causing a scratch. It’s worth the co-pay to avoid an infection.
Keep a spare pair of glasses and a small bottle of saline in your bag or car at all times. Being caught without a way to rinse your eye or a way to see once the lens is out is usually what turns a minor annoyance into a full-blown crisis.