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Devices designed for automated washing and/or decontaminating of contact lenses; some devices may provide some level of disinfection by killing or inactivating several types of microorganisms. These units usually perform the cleaning and decontaminating procedures on the lenses using several automated cycles of cleaning and performing one or more from a variety of decontamination or disinfection methods. Those decontamination methods include the use of chemical solutions and/or different forms of energy such as thermal (i.e., heat), ultrasonic, and mechanical energy. The mechanical units usually consist of a miniature washing machine that combines the mechanical action with standard solutions used for manually cleaning of lenses, thermal units use heat to decontaminate/disinfect the lenses without chemical cleaning agents; ultrasonic units only use water or saline solutions in the procedure. Contact lens washer/decontamination units are mainly intended for rigid contact lenses but may be used for some types of reusable soft contact lenses.
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