Take it out first
Burning is your eye telling you something on its surface is wrong. Remove the lens, rinse your eye with sterile preservative-free saline if you have it, and give it a few minutes. Then work through the causes below, starting at the top. The order matters: the first few are the quickest to check and, by wearers’ accounts, the most common.
The usual causes, in order
1. Residue on the lens or your fingers. This is what wearers find most often. Cleaner or a thick multipurpose solution that wasn’t fully rinsed off can burn badly. So can hand soap with moisturizer, lotion, makeup remover, or something on the counter that the plunger touched. Many wearers fixed it by rinsing, rubbing, and rinsing again with preservative-free saline before filling, and by washing with a plain soap and rinsing their hands well.
2. Peroxide that wasn’t neutralized. Hydrogen peroxide systems must finish their full soak in the case that came with the bottle. A worn-out case, a skipped cycle, or overfilling past the line can leave peroxide on the lens, and wearers describe the result as intense stinging. If you suspect this, keep the lens out and see the hydrogen peroxide guide.
3. The fill saline. Only sterile, preservative-free saline goes in the bowl. Wearers who filled with drugstore saline meant for rinsing, which can contain preservatives, often found that was the whole problem. Among proper fill salines, people differ: some sting with a buffered saline and do better with an unbuffered one, and others the reverse. A saline can also start to sting after months of being fine. The solution troubleshooter covers buffered and unbuffered options in detail.
4. Something added to the bowl. A thick gel drop in the fill helps many people, but wearers with very dry or damaged corneas report it can sting. Some prescription dry eye drops also leave the tears sticky enough to burn under a lens; wearers found rinsing the eye with saline before insertion helped. Ask your prescriber how long to wait after medicated drops.
5. Technique. A bubble, a speck of lint, or pressing the lens on too firmly can all cause a sharp or burning feeling. A gentle touch is enough. Check the lens in a mirror after insertion, and see how to insert if bubbles keep happening.
6. The lens itself or its fit. Right and left lenses swapped, a chipped edge, or a lens that is too large, too tight, or the wrong design can burn. A small number of wearers seem to react to a particular lens material or surface coating. If careful rinsing and a change of saline don’t help, the lens needs your fitter’s eyes.
7. Dry eye or nerve pain underneath. If you have severe dry eye, burning may be coming from the eye surface rather than the lens. Some wearers only got comfortable after their dry eye was treated alongside the lenses. Constant burning, a cold or menthol-like feeling with every drop, or pain out of proportion to what the doctor sees can point to nerve-related corneal pain, which needs its own treatment.
8. One eye only. When one eye burns and the other is fine with the same products, wearers usually found the cause was that lens or that eye, not the solutions.
Change one thing at a time
When burning keeps coming back, the advice wearers give each other most is to change one product at a time and keep notes: which eye, which product, which lot, and how soon the burning starts. Change two things at once and you’ll never know which one mattered. Agree any change with your fitter first.
Ruling out the simple causes
Do
- Rinse the lens with preservative-free saline after it comes out of storage, rubbing gently, before you fill it.
- Wash with a plain soap and rinse your hands well before handling lenses.
- Use a fresh vial of sterile preservative-free saline for every fill.
- Run a new lens through your usual clean and disinfect before judging it.
- Keep a clean, dry work surface with nothing else on it.
Don’t
- Fill the bowl with saline sold for rinsing or storing.
- Put a lens in straight from peroxide before the full neutralizing time.
- Reuse a peroxide case past its life or fill it past the line.
- Keep wearing a lens that burns to see if it settles.
What wearers say
Most wearers who post about burning solve it with the simple steps: a better rinse, a different saline, or a new neutralizing case. Many describe a single change ending weeks of burning. Others report a longer search, sometimes through several salines and lens pairs, before finding a combination that works, and a few found their eyes reacted to a specific material or coating. Wearers with Sjögren’s or severe dry eye are more likely to describe a long road, and some describe dramatic relief once the right combination was found. Wearers also say it’s worth getting a second opinion from a fitter with more scleral experience if burning never resolves.
What to ask your fitter
- Which fill saline should I use, and is it buffered? Is there another type I could try?
- Is my storage and cleaning routine compatible with my lens and any coating?
- How long should I wait after my medicated drops before putting lenses in?
- Could my lens be too large or too tight, or chipped?
- Could dry eye or nerve pain be part of this, and should it be treated separately?
Common questions
My brand-new lens burns but my old one didn't. Why?
A common experience is that a new lens stings until it has been through your usual cleaning and disinfecting routine. Clean and disinfect it, rinse it well with preservative-free saline, and try again. If it still burns, take it out and call your fitter: a swapped right and left, a chip, or the new lens's fit can all cause it.
I switched saline and now my eyes burn for a while after every insertion. Is that the saline?
It may be. Many wearers report that one saline stings while another feels fine, and that a saline that suited them for months can start to sting later. Go back to the one that worked and ask your fitter before trying another.
Could my lens case or tools cause burning?
Wearers have traced burning to tools left in rubbing alcohol and not rinsed, a peroxide case used past its life, and even toothpaste on the counter that reached the plunger. Clean, dry, rinsed tools and a clean work surface rule these out.
Only one eye burns. Is it the lens or my eye?
Swap nothing yet. First check that the lenses aren't switched, then look at that lens for chips or film. If the same lens burns after a careful clean and rinse, your fitter needs to see it, and the eye, because a one-sided problem often points to that lens's fit or that eye's surface.
Is a little sting at the fitting appointment normal?
Trial lenses aren't shaped for your eye, and the dye or office saline can sting. Tell the fitter on the day. Your own custom lenses, used with your own products, shouldn't burn.