A non-suction cup-type instrument for the insertion and removal of soft contact lenses is made of surgical rubber. It includes a central portion which looks somewhat like a suction cup having two sides cut away, and has small wedge-shaped contact lens-engaging elements or members protruding inwardly from each side of this suction cup-like member. It is again particularly noted that no suction cup action is involved in the present instrument. The instrument is also provided with two resilient arms which are aligned with the wedge-shaped contact lens engaging elements and which may be employed to support these elements and hold the lens more firmly once they are engaged. The space between the two wedge-shaped contact lens-engaging members, which incidentally have an overall configuration corresponding to opposed segments of a circle, is such that they are spaced apart by slightly less than the diameter of a contact lens.