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Contact lens case

The use of contact lenses to correct vision deficiencies is well known and well accepted. A wide variety of contact lenses are on the market. Users of contact lenses, particularly soft contact lenses, are familiar with the fact that contact lenses frequently, preferably daily, have to be cleaned to avoid inconveniences in the use of contact lenses. The proper care and handling of contact lenses requires a number of accessory items. A case for carrying and/or storing lenses between wearing times is needed. To date these cases have consisted of a plastic body having a pair of wells, each of a size and shape adapted to receive a lens and an amount of saline or other storage solution. Each well is sealed by means of a screw cap, which is threadingly engageable to a threaded annular rim surrounding the well, or a simple snap-closure. Contact lenses are typically put into a contact lens case when they are not in use. An important purpose of the case is to protect the contact lenses. Typically the cases are designed to hold a suitable soaking and/or cleansing fluid or solution into which the contact lenses are immersed when the contact lens carrying cases are closed. While it is desired to maintain the contact lens immersed in the solution, it also is desirable to substantially eliminate contact by the user with the sterile solution and spillage or overflow of the solution while providing easy access to the contact lens. There are two types of contact lenses in the marketplace; namely, "hard" and "soft" contact lenses. The "soft" contact lenses are generally preferred since many contact lens wearers believe that they are more comfortable than "hard" contact lenses. Unfortunately, these "soft" contact lenses generally require a more thorough cleaning practice than that required for "hard" contact lenses. Both hard and soft contact lenses must be stored in enclosures or storage cases when not in use. Hard contact lenses should, preferably, be stored in an immersion fluid which acts to both clean the lenses and serves as an asepticizing agent to prevent the growth of undesirable organisms on the lens surfaces. With soft contact lenses, there is even a greater requirement that the lenses be stored in an immersion fluid since such lenses are porous in nature and susceptible to drying out if not hydrated. Soft contact lenses must be periodically sterilized and cleaned to remove secretions from the eye and to prevent the growth of bacteria and the like on the lenses.

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