Device for insertion, manipulation and removal of soft contact lenses

A device for inserting and removing a soft contact lens from the eye of a wearer, and comprising

• a body adapted to be held in the hand and moved thereby universally relative to the eye;
• a pair of lens engaging elongated pads carried by the body in spaced relation to each other transversely of their lengths;
• said pads being engageable with the anterior face of a soft contact lens in the form of a spheroidal segment at locations thereon inwardly from the edges of the lens and spaced apart transversely of the lens, while the lens is installed on the eye;
• said pads being movable toward each other by portions of the hand, while said faces are so engaged with the installed lens, to cause said faces to flex the lens out of its normal spheroidal contour in a manner to admit air between the rear face of the lens and the eye on which it is installed, and to hold the lens in flexed condition while it is on the eye and during its removal from the eye by movement of the body away from the eye;
• said body being in the form of a trough having front and rear ends, a base portion extending from front to rear, and said trough being open at the top throughout its length, and being open at its ends, and having side walls extending upwardly from said base portion in divergent relation relative to each other;
• said side walls are resilient so that they can be flexed toward each other by the hand holding the body;
• and
• said pads are carried on said side walls, respectively, adjacent the forward end of the body.