Contact Lens Wearers Carry A Bad Eye Bacteria That Non-Users Do Not Have

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Contact Lens Wearers Carry A Bad Eye Bacteria That Non Users Do Not Have

Let’s face it. The primary reason why people wear content lenses is to look good. It’s a very persuasive reason of course if wearing spectacles makes you feel less confident in social situations or it hampers your profession or lifestyle in any way. And if you haven’t yet considered the absolute freedom of LASIK surgery.

As a contact lens wearer, you must be following at least some of the rules of hygiene and best practices to make them last for a while. But a large population of contact wearers takes the eye health ramifications of this product for granted, never thinking of the very grave and very real danger of majorly harming the eyes when introducing and removing a foreign object from them every single day.

A recent study conducted by NYU Langone Medical Center makes this concern even more prescient. According to the findings, people who wear contacts have a different type of bacteria in their eyes than non-users. And as if this news is not disturbing enough, the study declares that this bacteria can be directly responsible for causing eye ulcers!

The NYU Langone Medical Center found a high presence of 4 bacterias in contact lens wearers’ eyes: Acinetobacter, Methylobacterium, Lactobacillus, and Pseudomonas. And the last one was commonly linked with corneal ulcers.

“There has been an increase in the prevalence of corneal ulcers following the introduction of soft contact lenses in the 1970s,” says study co-author Jack Dodick, MD, and professor of ophthalmology at NYU Langone. “Because the offending organisms seem to emanate from the skin, greater attention should be directed to eyelid and hand hygiene.”

Which brings us back to the topic of day-to-day contact lens hygiene – only this time with more urgency than ever.

Disposable Soft Contacts Will Minimize Infection

  • Cleaning your contacts is a rather annoying chore that you have to perform every single day. And the job has to be done thoroughly because eye irritants and bacteria cannot be seen like grime and dirt in other parts of the body.
  • Disposable soft lens is like manna from heaven for lazy contact wearers because use-and-throw is obviously the best guarantee that no leftover germs from yesterday are being introduced into your eyes today.

Threw Away Your Glasses? Get Them Back Again!

  • Unless you’ve just had LASIK surgery, there’s no reason to throw away your glasses. They are a live-saver even when you opt for the contact lens alternative because they give eyes a much-needed reprieve, and help maintain a healthy, optic ecosystem.
  • Switch contacts for glasses as soon as you get home from work. Limiting the hours you keep your contacts on reduces the risk of infections like Pink Eyes and also mitigates some impact of indoor/outdoor air pollution.

Contact Lenses Can Be A Problem When Taking Certain Medications

  • Antihistamines, taken to fight allergies, have a side effect of drying out the eyes. Some acne medications and acetylsalicylic acid (ASA) also have a similar impact. Introducing a foreign object like contacts into dry eyes is a recipe for irritation, itching, redness, blurred vision, etc. because the contract covers the surface of the eye and restricts the flow of oxygen. Plus, you’re not supposed to rub your eyes with contacts on. You got to take them off while rinsing or putting in soothing eye drops… These niggling problems can be avoided by wearing lenses for as less time as possible – or not wearing them at all — when you think your eyes are feeling gritty and dehydrated.

Don’t Wear Contact Lenses To The Hair Dressing Salon

  • The indoor air in a hair-dressing salon is loaded with airborne particles like hairspray and other styling products. The constant use of hair dryers is also removing moisture from the air. Sounds like an ideal place you want to wear a contact lens in? No, not at all…