The very first time you were issued with your prescription contact lenses, your optician went through a very specific routine of how to care of them and how to wear them correctly – but can you honestly say that you still follow that regime every time you put in or take out your contacts?
What are your bad habits?
Be it wearing your daily or monthly contacts for longer than you’re supposed to or storing your contacts in water when you run out of solution, it’s easy to become complacent with your contact lens care…
1. Sleeping in your contact lenses
It can happen to the best of us - nodding off watching TV, falling straight into bed after a night out, or simply forgetting that you are wearing contacts. But the next morning you experience that horrible grating feeling as you peel your eyes open and the world takes on a cloudy appearance.
When you sleep in your contacts, your eye becomes starved of oxygen, nutrients and moisture which can lead to a tightening of the cornea and breaks appearing on its surface. If bacteria get into any of these breaks, an infection can develop.
There is no simple solution of this problem; all you can do is try to remember to take out your contacts before you hit the pillow. If you feel yourself getting drowsy, pop out your contacts and put on your glasses instead.
2. Using water or saliva to clean your contacts
Sometimes your contact seems clean but when you put it in your eye, you experience the sensation that there’s a piece of grit on the lens and it causes your eye to tear and redden.
The temptation is there to remove it and rinse it in water or your saliva before reinserting it into your eye. Well, putting it simply: DON’T!
Water isn’t salty like your natural tear film and contact lenses tend to absorb it and swell, which means it won’t fit correctly over your eye. Furthermore, tap water isn’t sterile and can contain bacteria that can cause infections to develop. The same goes for saliva – it’s a bacteria breeding ground!
It’s best to use eye drops suitable for contact lens wearers, or else carry an emergency stash of spare lenses and solution.
3. Re-using your solution
The bacteria and build-up that form on your contacts is removed by the solution you store them in, but if you don’t change it or change your lenses case for that matter, you are essentially storing your contacts is a concoction of dirt and bacteria.
Use fresh solution each time you use your contacts and change your lens case every three months – replace it as you would your toothbrush.
Why Not Try Laser Eye Surgery Instead?
If you’re tired of all the hassle involved with contact lenses, why not go for Laser Eye Surgery from Optilase?
It’s much easier to have your cornea reshaped permanently by laser, so that you never have to rely on glasses, contacts or corrective eyewear ever again!
Give Optilase a call on +353 1 223 8821 to organise a free consultation or find out if you are a candidate for laser eye surgery. It will change your life!
Read about the Laser Eye Surgery Journey.
