The moment is pure, unadulterated dread. You go to rub your eye or take your lens out after a long day, and suddenly, it’s gone. You blink. You look in the mirror. You see nothing but pink tissue and the white of your eye.
Panic sets in.
You’ve probably heard the urban legend about contact lenses sliding behind your eyeball and getting stuck in your brain. Let's stop right there. It is physically impossible for a contact lens to get lost behind your eye. There is a membrane called the conjunctiva that acts as a sealed pouch, connecting your eyelids to the eyeball itself. It’s a dead end. If you’re wondering how to get contact lens from back of eye, the first thing to realize is that "the back" is actually just a deep fold of tissue called the fornix. It’s a tight spot, sure, but it’s not a black hole.
Why Lenses Play Hide and Seek
Most of the time, a lens "disappears" because it has folded over itself or shifted off the cornea—the clear front part of your eye—and tucked into that upper or lower fold. This usually happens if your eyes are bone-dry, if you rubbed your eye too vigorously, or if you fell asleep in lenses not designed for overnight wear.
When the eye is dry, the lens loses its lubrication and sticks to the underside of the eyelid like a suction cup. Dr. Glenda Secor, a past chair of the American Optometric Association’s Contact Lens and Cornea Section, has noted in numerous clinical discussions that the sensation of a "lost" lens is often just the corneal abrasion or irritation left behind after the lens has already fallen out.
But if it’s still in there, you’ll likely feel a scratchy, "foreign body" sensation. It’s annoying. It’s uncomfortable. Honestly, it’s kinda gross. But you can get it out.
The First Rule: Stop Rubbing
The instinct is to mash your eyelid around to try and find the lens. Don't.
✨ Don't miss: How to get over a sore throat fast: What actually works when your neck feels like glass
Rubbing can actually cause the lens to scratch your cornea, leading to a painful condition called a corneal abrasion. If you scratch the surface of your eye, it will feel like the lens is still there even after you've successfully removed it. This leads to a vicious cycle of poking and prodding an already injured eye.
Wash your hands. Thoroughly. Use a mild soap and avoid anything with heavy perfumes or lotions that could sting. Dry them with a lint-free towel. If you’re at a friend's house and all they have is a fuzzy bathroom towel, use a paper towel instead. You don't want fibers in the mix.
How to Get Contact Lens From Back of Eye (The Manual Reset)
If you’re wearing a soft lens, the process is mostly about rehydration.
Lubricate the Situation
Soft lenses are made of hydrogels or silicone hydrogels. They need moisture to stay flexible. If the lens is stuck under your upper eyelid, it's likely dried out and "tacked" to the tissue. Grab some sterile saline solution or rewetting drops. Do not use tap water. Tap water can carry Acanthamoeba, a nasty parasite that causes vision-threatening infections.
Flood your eye with drops. Blink a lot.
The Eyelid Flip and Massage
Look down as far as you can. While looking down, gently massage your upper eyelid with your fingertip. You’re trying to encourage the lens to move toward the center of your eye. If that doesn't work, try the opposite: look up and gently massage the lower lid.
🔗 Read more: How Much Should a 5 7 Man Weigh? The Honest Truth About BMI and Body Composition
Sometimes, you need to physically move the eyelid to break the suction. Gently grasp your upper lashes and pull the eyelid out and down over the lower lid. This often "unhooks" a lens that has folded over the top of the globe.
Finding the Folded Lens
If you still can't see it, you might need to flip your eyelid. This sounds terrifying, but it’s a standard move for contact lens veterans.
- Use a Q-tip or your finger and place it horizontally against the outside of your upper lid.
- Look down.
- Gently pull your lashes upward, folding the lid back over the Q-tip.
- Use a mirror. You’ll likely see the lens bunched up right there.
Dealing with Rigid Gas Permeable (RGP) Lenses
Hard lenses are a different beast. They don’t fold, so they don’t get "lost" in the same way, but they can suction onto the white part of your eye (the sclera).
If an RGP lens is off-center, do not massage your eyelid. Hard lenses have firmer edges that can easily scrape the eye if pushed. Instead, use a small suction cup tool (often called a DMV remover) if you have one. If not, use your finger to apply gentle pressure to the edge of the lens to break the suction, then guide it back to the center of the cornea.
When to Call it Quits and See a Pro
You've spent twenty minutes in front of the bathroom mirror. Your eye is bloodshot. Your vision is slightly blurry from all the saline. You’re frustrated.
It is okay to stop.
💡 You might also like: How do you play with your boobs? A Guide to Self-Touch and Sensitivity
If you cannot find the lens and the "something is in my eye" feeling persists, you need to see an optometrist or go to an urgent care clinic with an ophthalmoscope. A professional can use a yellow dye called fluorescein and a blue light to instantly highlight any foreign objects—or scratches—on the surface of the eye.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), nearly 1 in 5 contact lens-related infections lead to serious eye damage. If you've poked at your eye so much that it's starting to throb or produce discharge, you've moved past "annoying" and into "medical territory."
Surprising Facts About "Lost" Lenses
There have been extreme cases that make your morning struggle look like child's play. In 2017, a report in the British Medical Journal (BMJ) detailed a 67-year-old woman who was scheduled for cataract surgery. Doctors found a "bluish mass" in her eye. It turned out to be 27 soft contact lenses that had become stuck together over the course of 35 years. She just thought her discomfort was part of getting older.
While you almost certainly don't have 27 lenses in there, it illustrates that the eye can "hide" objects for a long time without causing immediate blindness. But don't let that encourage you to leave it in. A trapped lens is a breeding ground for bacteria.
Practical Steps for Right Now
If you are reading this while staring at a red eye in the mirror, follow this sequence:
- Stop Touching Your Eye: Take a five-minute break to let the inflammation go down.
- Rehydrate: Dump 5-10 drops of preservative-free saline into the eye.
- The "Look-Around" Method: Move your eye in wide circles—up, right, down, left—while gently pressing on the lids.
- The Flashlight Trick: Have a friend shine a light into your eye from the side (not directly in front). The light will often catch the edge of a transparent lens, making it visible.
- Check the Floor: Seriously. Check your shirt. Check the sink. A lot of "lost" lenses actually fell out minutes ago.
Moving forward, if this happens often, talk to your doctor about switching to a different lens material or a different base curve. A lens that fits too flat is much more likely to slide off the cornea. If you have chronic dry eye, the lens will always be prone to sticking.
Once the lens is out, leave your contacts out for at least 24 hours. Your eye needs to breathe and recover from the trauma of the "search and rescue" mission. If you wake up tomorrow and the eye is sticky, painful, or extremely sensitive to light, get to a doctor. That’s a sign of an infection or a significant scratch that needs antibiotic drops.
Basically, stay calm. You’re not going to lose your eye to a piece of plastic tucked under your lid, but you do need to be methodical about getting it out.
Actionable Next Steps
- Buy a bottle of preservative-free rewetting drops specifically for contact lenses and keep them in your bag; dry eyes are the number one cause of migrated lenses.
- Inspect your lenses for tears before putting them in, as a jagged edge makes a lens much more likely to shift and get stuck.
- Practice the "eyelid pull" technique when your eyes aren't irritated so you know the mechanics of it before a crisis happens.
- Discard any lens that has been stuck in the "back" of the eye once you remove it, as it is likely contaminated or damaged from the friction.