Proper Care of Contact Lenses is Important to Your Health

Contact lenses are worn to improve sight, but bad lens care can actually be blinding.

Not taking care of your contacts could lead to loss of sight, doctors say. In fact, improper care of lenses is the underlying cause of 30,000 cases of corneal ulcers diagnosed each year. The ulcers can lead to scarring and even permanent vision loss. Many of those cases require a corneal transplant.

Doctors warn contact wearers to never sleep with their lenses in, even with extended-wear lenses. Also, they should never clean soft lenses with water or saliva -- which are both filled with bacteria.

Also, users should clean their contact cases regularly with hot water and replace them every three months.

In a recent study almost one in 13 contact lens wearers had abrasions on the cornea severe enough to lead to infections or other problems. Mild abrasions happens to just about all people, whether they wear contacts or not. But the chances are increased for contact lens wearers if they don't clean and replace their lenses on a regular basis.

Like our skin, the surface of the cornea regenerates new cells. Old cells are slough away in order to make room for new cells. But often too many cells are shed leaving a gateway for bacteria, viruses, and other microorganisms.

Notes Kelly Nichols, a study coauthor and a clinical assistant professor of optometry at Ohio State University, Columbus. "We were looking for extreme cases where the subject had a lot of staining." Corneal staining gets its name from the orange-yellow fluorescein dye used to "stain" the surface of the cornea temporarily. After staining the eyes, an optometrist looks at each eye under a special light that causes the dye to fluoresce. The abrasions show up as bright spots on an otherwise smooth, dull surface.

In a study Nichols pointed out that 56% of the patients had mild staining, and 8% had moderate to severe staining in at least one eye. The severity was directly related to how often the patient replaced their lenses with a new pair, if they wore conventional rather then disposable lenses, and how meticulous they were in caring for their lens.

An interesting note, of the nine subjects that used disposable lenses only one had evidence of staining, and that was mild. Nearly 2/3 of the patients who use conventional lenses (those that are replaced once a year) had evidence of mild staining and 14% had signs of moderate to severe staining.