Cleaning Your Contacts With A Hydrogen Peroxide Solution
Reviewed by Henry Rosenthal, OD
Hydrogen Peroxide solutions are a great way to clean, disinfect, rinse and store your contact lenses. It's a great alternative for people who are sensitive to the preservatives in multipurpose solutions and is highly effective against killing Acanthomoeba. Hydrogen peroxide on its own can hurt and harm your eyes and can also cause stinging, burning and corneal damage, so you must follow up the disinfecting process with a neutralizer. The neutralizer turns the peroxide into harmless oxygen and water, making it safe to put your lenses back into your eyes.
One & Two Step Process: How They Work
You have two options when using hydrogen peroxide to clean your lenses; the One Step or Two Step process. The One Step process neutralizes your lenses during the disinfecting stage, while the Two Step process neutralizes your lenses after the disinfecting stage.
Some storage cases have a neutralizer built-in, making it a simple One Step process. With all other cases, a neutralizing tablet must be added. This is the Two Step process as lenses go in the basket to be rinsed. The basket is then placed in the case or cup filled with hydrogen peroxide for cleaning and disinfecting. Regardless of which method you use, rinsing must be done before you place the lenses back into your eyes.
Hydrogen Peroxide Test Strips
Many people in the food industry are familiar with using test strips for sanitizer and bleach water. The purpose of the test strips are to make sure the solutions are safe. The hydrogen peroxide test strips serve the same purpose for your eyes. These test strips are intended for use with concentrated hydrogen peroxide, as they turn the strips black immediately. These strips can be used for testing peroxide based contact lens solutions but because of other additives, a 3% contact lens solution will remain white for longer than untreated 3% peroxide; this is normal. You can go online to order the test strips, but again, if you're using a neutralizer (which you should be) your solution will be safe enough.
Brands/Products Available
Below is a list of eleven top rated hydrogen peroxide solutions available on the market. If you're not sure which one is best for you, talk to a pharmacist or your eye care practitioner to help you make the right decision.
- AMO OxyStep 1 & 2 Step
- Vision Direct - 1 Step
- Vision Direct - 2 Step
- Ciba Vision AO Sept+
- Allergan OxySept 1 Step
- Ciba Vision 10/10
- Ciba Vision Blue Sept
- Sauflon Multi
- Ultracare Disinfecting Solution/Neutralizer
- Oxysept Disinfecting Solution/Neutralizer
[Page updated 12/2010]
