Even Discounted Contact Lens Need Cleaning - See Why
by John Jones
Even though we can get them cheap from any number of discounted contact lens suppliers, we still don't take enough care of them. We wear them for days and put them in our mouths. We use plain old tap water to rinse them off. We swim in them. We even sleep in them.
Believe it or not, people have been known to devote more care and attention to a pair of shoes than they do to their contact lenses. Contacts have become so popular, and so comfortable, that's it's all too easy to forget that they're actually a medical device - which can, and often does, give rise to some serious complications if they are not treated with care - all it takes is some contact lens cleaner, some contact lens cases and your set.
If you get a bacterial infection in your eyes it can create very serious problems and painful inflammation. I know we all believe tap water is healthy and safe, but that's not quite true. Organisms that live in tap water can grow and build colonies in your eyes, and even resist most drugs. I don't want to be a scaremonger, but in serious cases people have gone blind or needed to have cornea transplants. Over the past 24 months there have been increased incidences of infections of a protozoan known as Acanthamoeba.
Rocco, 20, (of Algonquin) only wore his contacts a few months before he began waking up to throbbing pain in his left eye, which had turned red. Rocco, who had just returned home from his freshman year at Eastern Illinois University, went to a family doctor expecting a diagnosis of pink eye. It was Acanthamoeba.
Six months and three doctors later, Rocco underwent a cornea transplant. It was the only way doctors could save his vision after medications failed to kill the amoebas colonizing his left eye, causing scar tissue to blur his eyesight.
Now Rocco is facing a second transplant in his other eye. "I'd hate to see this happen to anyone else," Rocco said. "Tell the people to keep those things clean." All it takes is an effective contact lens cleaner and some contact lens cases and you're set.
But don't panic - Acanthamoeba is still relatively rare, and doctors believe it only affects about one or two contact lens wearers in every one million. However, bacterial infections are much more common, affecting about 1 in 2500 wearers every year.
The problem is that contact lenses counteract the eyes natural defense mechanisms. When you blink your eyes, your eyelid spreads tears from your tear ducts all over the epithelium (medical term for the top layer of your eye). This washes away any bacteria and foreign objects and keeps your eyes clean and healthy. When you introduce a contact lens into your eye, the natural defense process no longer works as the eyelid is no longer in direct contact with your eye. So your contact lenses have to be perfectly clean to ensure healthy eyes.
John Jones explains why, with so many discounted contact lens suppliers offering cheap lenses it easy to overlook the contact lens hygiene, and contact lens care is vital to eye health. Get your own completely unique content version of this article.
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