Contact Care 101: The Do’s And Don’ts

Contact lenses are safe, comfortable, and can change your lifestyle! However, taking proper care of them is crucial to your vision health.

Improper contact care or cleaning can lead to infection and, in severe cases, vision loss. Remember these tips when it comes to contact lens care:

Your Optometrist Knows Best

To avoid eye infection or other vision problems, wear contact lenses as prescribed by your eye care professional. Even with a prescription, not all contacts will be right for your eyes or lifestyle. Consult with your optometrist to see what contacts are best for you.

As with any prescription, contact lens prescriptions expire. See your optometrist yearly or as recommended to ensure you continue to have an accurate and appropriate prescription for your eyes.

When It Comes To Contact Lenses, Sharing Is Not Caring

Remember, your contact lenses should never touch anyone’s eyes but your own. Using another’s lenses can spread harmful particles or infection from their eyes to yours. Not fun!

Follow The Recommended Replacement Schedule

Don’t stretch out your lenses longer than your eye care professional recommends. Daily disposable lenses are designed to be worn once and then thrown away. Other contacts are designed to last longer and need to be properly cleaned and stored. Whatever you choose, replace your contacts as recommended.

Do Not Sleep In Your Contacts

This is perhaps the most disregarded instruction when it comes to contact lens wear. Unless you are prescribed “extended wear” contacts, wearing your contacts at night deprives your eyes of much needed oxygen and can lead to serious problems.

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A Good Cleaning Regimen Will Protect Your Eyes

Basic cleaning care for contact lenses consists of five easy steps.

Wash your hands. The last thing you want to do is transfer germs from your hands to your eyes!
Rub the lens. Using a few drops of the recommended solution, rub the lens in the palm of your hand. This will clean off any debris or protein buildup.
Rinse. To get off any loosened debris, rinse the contacts with solution taking as long as the package directs.
Use fresh solution to store. Never use your old solution from the day before. This solution will not properly disinfect your contact lenses and can cause infections.
Repeat. Simply repeat these steps for your other lens!

Remember to never use tap water on lenses or even put them in your mouth to “rinse” them. Microorganisms can live in even the cleanest water and can cause damage to your sight.

Our Job Is To Keep Your Eyes Healthy

Following these steps as well as the guidelines from your eye care professional is the single best way to avoid eye infections. At our practice, your health is our priority. Please contact us if you have any questions about contact lens care!

We love our patients. Thank you for your continued loyalty!

Top image by Flickr user MarLeah Cole used under Creative Commons Attribution-Sharealike 4.0 license. Image cropped and modified from original.

The content on this blog is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of qualified health providers with questions you may have regarding medical conditions.