First: contact your fitter
Even from another country, a message or call to your fitter’s office is worth it. They may know the product you need by its local name, approve a specific stopgap for your eyes, or tell you to switch to glasses for a few days. Save their number and email before you travel.
What to look for on a pharmacy label
Take an empty vial or the box from home to show the pharmacist. Then look for:
- Sterile
- Preservative-free
- 0.9% sodium chloride, with nothing else added, or a buffered saline made for contact lenses
- Single dose (single-use vials or ampoules)
- Ideally, labelled for rinsing and inserting contact lenses
If you’re in a country where you don’t read the language, the Europe supplies page has a short table of label words in several languages.
Short-term stopgaps wearers use
When the right fill truly isn’t available, wearers describe two stopgaps. Both are off-label, and both are for a few days, not a new routine. Ask your fitter if you can reach them.
- Preservative-free saline sold for other uses, such as single-dose saline for inhalation. In the US, for example, one such product is cleared for nebulizer and airway use, not the eye.[3] It’s usually unbuffered, and some eyes find unbuffered saline less comfortable over a long day.
- Preservative-free lubricant eye drops in single-dose vials, used to fill the bowl. These are labelled as eye lubricants, not lens fills. Thick gels, such as Refresh Celluvisc, are labelled as single-use and discarded once opened.[4] Thick drops can blur your vision when used as the whole fill.
If you use a stopgap and your eye stings, reddens, or blurs, take the lens out and switch to glasses.
Never put these in your lens
Do
- Use sterile, preservative-free saline in single-dose vials.
- Open a fresh vial for every fill.
- Keep the receipt and box so you can show your fitter later.
- Switch to glasses if you can't find anything safe.
Don’t
- Fill or rinse with tap, bottled, or distilled water.
- Make saline with salt and water.
- Fill with multipurpose, conditioning, or preserved solution.
- Rinse or fill with hydrogen peroxide.
- Fill with eye drops from a multi-dose bottle unless your fitter approved that product.
The FDA advises never using non-sterile water or homemade saline, and never exposing lenses to any water at all.[1] Hydrogen peroxide must be fully neutralized in its own case and never used to rinse a lens before insertion or put in the eye.[2]
If you also forgot your disinfecting solution
Lenses still need cleaning and disinfecting every night. Pharmacies and opticians in most countries sell rigid lens solutions and hydrogen peroxide systems. With peroxide, use the case that comes in the box, never an old one, and soak for the full time on the label.[2] Don’t buy plain peroxide and dilute it yourself. If your lenses are coated, ask your fitter which products are safe. Never store lenses overnight in saline instead of a disinfectant.
Glasses are a safe fallback
If you can’t find something you trust, wear your glasses until you can. The FDA advises keeping a backup pair with a current prescription.[5] For some wearers, a few days without lenses is uncomfortable. That’s still safer than filling a lens with the wrong thing.
Packing for next time
Wearers who travel a lot say the same things:
- Pack at least double the saline you expect to use, split between your carry-on and checked bag.
- Bring sealed, original packaging. The FDA warns against decanting solutions into smaller containers.[1]
- Carry a note from your fitter listing your products, for customs, security, and foreign pharmacies.
- Photograph your product labels so you can show a pharmacist exactly what you use.
- Know your stopgap in advance. Ask your fitter before the trip what you should use if you run out.
See traveling with scleral lenses for flying and packing, and the emergency kit for what to carry every day.
What wearers say
- Pharmacies often have something. In many countries, wearers found preservative-free single-dose saline at a pharmacy, though often unbuffered and not labelled for lenses.
- Some places have very little. Travelers to remote areas, and to some countries, found nothing suitable and say to bring everything.
- Risky shortcuts get suggested. Diluting stronger peroxide, saving opened vials, and filling with preserved solutions all come up. They’re the shortcuts most likely to hurt.
What to ask your fitter before you go
- What should I use if I run out of my usual fill abroad?
- Is inhalation or other preservative-free saline OK for me as a stopgap?
- Can you write a note listing my lens care products?
- Can I contact you while I’m away?
Common questions
Can I make saline with bottled water and salt?
No. The FDA advises never using homemade saline, and never exposing lenses to any water, including bottled or distilled. Homemade saline isn't sterile, and the FDA notes that tap and distilled water have been associated with Acanthamoeba keratitis, a serious, hard-to-treat eye infection.
The pharmacy only has saline for injection or inhalation. Is that OK?
It's off-label: those products are made for other uses, not eyes. Some wearers and fitters use sterile, preservative-free 0.9% saline from a single-use container as a short stopgap. Ask your fitter if you can reach them. Check that it's sterile, preservative-free, and contains nothing but sodium chloride and water, and never draw it up with a needle.
I forgot my disinfecting solution, not my saline. What now?
Buy a disinfecting solution for rigid (GP) lenses, or a hydrogen peroxide system with its own case, at a pharmacy or optician. If your lenses have a surface coating, ask your fitter which products are safe for it. Never store lenses overnight in saline alone: it doesn't disinfect.
Can I reuse an opened vial to stretch my supply?
No. An opened single-use vial isn't sterile anymore. Some wearers use leftover saline from a vial to rinse a lens before it goes into disinfecting solution, but never to fill a lens again.