Contact lenses are like your knight in shining armor when you don’t want to wear your glasses or want to undergo a LASIK to restore clear vision. In fact, the market for contact lenses is rapidly increasing in India, thanks to a growing awareness of eye health.
But hey! Are they always good for your eye health? Well, the answer to this depends on your wearing practices. Contact lenses demand specific care for safe and comfortable wear. Unfortunately, most individuals get too comfortable with it and overlook the do’s and don’ts.
For this reason alone, today, we are going to explore the best practices for wearing contact lenses.
1. Wash Your Hands Well
You know how sensitive your eyes are, don’t you? Think of the time you mistakenly put hot pepper fingers in your eyes. Ouch! It burned.
Now, think of all the places your hands touch and the dirt and bacteria it may collect. What happens when they enter your eyes? Irritation, stinging sensation, and even infections. So, it is best to wash your hands with mild soap and water before wearing or removing your lenses. Make sure you dry them well with a microfibre or a lint-free towel.
2. Stick To Your Replacement Schedule
Would you eat a food packet after its expiry date? Then, why do it with your contact lenses?
Contact lenses come with different replacement schedules – daily, monthly, quarterly, or yearly. This replacement schedule depends on the quality of the solution inside the blister pack. These chemicals break down over time, causing the lens to dry out. As a result, they don’t help you see perfectly or protect your eyes.
Plus, your eyes find it difficult to breathe once the contact lens is close to or has passed its replacement schedule. This puts you at risk for dry eye or infection, which may turn into corneal ulcers.
So speak to your eye doctor, understand the replacement schedule for your lenses, and follow it.
3. Disinfect Regularly
Contact lenses that can be worn for weeks and months require you to clean and place them in a disinfecting contact lens solution. Furthermore, it is important that you change your lens solution in the case every day if you wear your lenses daily.
Do not try to store your contact lenses in water, homemade saline solutions, eye drops or any other liquid which is not designed to store contact lenses. This goes without saying but the guiding material explicitly warns against using saliva to store your lens.
Also Read – 5 Eye Health Tips Essential for Optimal Vision
4. Protect Them from Water
At all costs, avoid exposing your contact lenses to water. Why? The germs and bacterias in water can stick to your contact lenses, putting you at risk of infection like Acanthamoeba keratitis. Such an infection is severe and is caused by a free living amoeba which is commonly found in water.
Moreover, these infections can be extremely discomforting and painful, even leading to blindness at times. So, no matter the type of water — distilled, tap, sea, or from a pool — don’t mix it with your contact lenses.
5. Remove the Lens Before Sleeping
Not all contact lenses are created equal. Thus, not all are designed to be worn while sleeping. And that’s the case with most of the contact lenses. Why is it important to remove them?
Well, because sleeping with them increases the risk of infections by 6 to 8 times. Plus, sleeping without them allows your eyes to breathe well and helps with overall eye health.
6. Change Your Lens Case
No matter how diligently you clean and disinfect your lens case, it can still develop germs and bacteria. These microorganisms can hinder the disinfecting solution’s ability to protect your lens as well as degrade its quality. Thus, experts advise changing your lens case every 3 months.
Also Read – Role of Nutrition in Eye Health: Foods for Better Vision
Wrapping Up
Practicing the best habits ensures that you’re keeping your eye on and not inviting more trouble. Your eyes are already very sensitive, and inappropriate contact lens habits can make them even more sensitive, opening them up to severe infections, which could lead to blindness.
Here’s our final suggestion to you: Always carry your lens case with a fresh disinfecting solution and a pair of extra glasses along. Why? Because contact lenses are delicate and can cause anything to happen.
In case your eyes start to feel dry or you experience pain from prolonged wear, you can always switch to your glasses and give your eyes the rest they need.
If you need an eye hospital for your vision concerns, consider Shree Ramkrishna Netralaya. We are committed to offering exceptional service. Contact us today.