Contact lenses are a great alternative to glasses that provide clear, comfortable vision when they are fitted and worn as prescribed. If you’re looking for contact lens care tips, start with these five habits we discuss with patients at The Eye Collective in Winter Park.
1. Can contact lenses make dry eye symptoms worse?
Dryness, burning, grittiness, or vision that fluctuates during the day can make contact lenses harder to wear. The tear film and contact lens interact, so an unstable tear film or an underlying condition such as dry eye or meibomian gland dysfunction may affect comfort. But discomfort is not always caused by dry eye; contact lens fit, deposits, allergies, and eyelid inflammation can contribute, too.[1,2]
If your contacts become uncomfortable earlier in the day than usual or you’re wearing them for fewer hours before wanting to remove them due to discomfort, an evaluation can help identify the cause. Learn more about dry eye or our dry eye evaluations.
2. Is it safe to sleep in contact lenses?
Unless your eye doctor has prescribed overnight wear for your specific lenses, remove them before bed—even for a nap. Sleeping in contact lenses increases the risk of corneal infection, including among daily disposable lens wearers.[3] A lens left on the eye overnight gives germs more opportunity to cause an infection.
3. Can you shower or swim in contact lenses?
To minimize the risk of infections, it is recommended that contact lenses be removed before showering, swimming, or using a hot tub. Tap water, pools, lakes, and ocean water can carry microorganisms that may become trapped against the eye by a contact lens. One example is Acanthamoeba, which can cause a rare but serious corneal infection.[4,5]
If your lenses are exposed to water, remove them as soon as possible. Discard daily disposable lenses or clean and disinfect reusable lenses according to their prescribed care instructions. Never rinse or store contacts in water.[4]
4. Should you wear contact lenses when you’re sick?
When you have a cold or flu, consider wearing glasses until you feel better. A small pilot case-control study found that recent illness was associated with corneal inflammatory events in soft contact lens wearers, although it could not show that illness directly caused those events.[6] If your eyes are red, irritated, or producing discharge, stop wearing your lenses and contact your eye doctor before putting them back in.
5. How often should you replace your contact lenses?
You should always follow the replacement schedule as prescribed by your doctor for your specific lenses. Daily disposable contact lenses are designed for one day of wear and should be discarded after each use. Reusable contact lenses should be replaced at the interval specified by your doctor for that lens—often every two weeks or monthly, though some specialty lenses have longer schedules. Don’t extend the interval simply because your lenses still look or feel comfortable. Wearing lenses beyond their intended schedule may affect comfort and contribute to complications. One clinical study found a trend toward more complications with greater overwear.[7]
Contact lens care in Winter Park
If your contact lenses have become uncomfortable—or you’re due for a contact lens evaluation—The Eye Collective can assess your contact lens fit, tear film, and ocular surface and discuss options suited to your eyes and routine. Learn about our contact lens evaluations in Winter Park.
Resources
Markoulli M, Kolanu S. Contact lens wear and dry eyes: challenges and solutions. Clinical Optometry. 2017;9:41–48. doi:10.2147/OPTO.S111130
Craig JP, Willcox MDP, Argüeso P, et al. The TFOS International Workshop on Contact Lens Discomfort: report of the contact lens interactions with the tear film subcommittee. Investigative Ophthalmology & Visual Science. 2013;54(11)–TFOS156. doi:10.1167/iovs.13-13235
Stapleton F, Naduvilath T, Keay L, et al. Risk factors and causative organisms in microbial keratitis in daily disposable contact lens wear. PLOS ONE. 2017;12(8). doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0181343
Arshad M, Carnt N, Tan J, Ekkeshis I, Stapleton F. Water exposure and the risk of contact lens-related disease. Cornea. 2019;38(6):791–797. doi:10.1097/ICO.0000000000001898
Carnt N, Minassian DC, Dart JKG. Acanthamoeba keratitis risk factors for daily wear contact lens users: a case-control study. Ophthalmology. 2023;130(1):48–55. doi:10.1016/j.ophtha.2022.08.002
Richdale K, Lam DY, Wagner H, et al. Case-control pilot study of soft contact lens wearers with corneal infiltrative events and healthy controls. Investigative Ophthalmology & Visual Science. 2016;57(1):47–55. doi:10.1167/iovs.15-18512
Yeung KK, Forister JFY, Forister EF, et al. Compliance with soft contact lens replacement schedules and associated contact lens-related ocular complications: the UCLA Contact Lens Study. Optometry. 2010;81(11):598–607. doi:10.1016/j.optm.2010.01.013