There are approximately 36 million Americans who wear contact lenses, a great option for those who don’t have 20/20 vision. If you choose to wear contact lenses, you have to properly take care of them or you could be doing some serious damage to your eyes.
Often, if your contact lenses are hurting you, it’s because you’re hurting your lenses. Metro Eye’s Doctor Amy Jankowski wants to help. Here are a few helpful tips from Dr. Jankowski that will keep your eyes safe and healthy:
- 70% of contact lens cases are contaminated from overuse and 23% (nearly 1 in 4) of all contact lens wearers never replace their lens case. Don’t be one of those people! Your contact lens case’s plastic has pores that bacteria love to live in.
- If your contact case is full of makeup or has residue of old sticky contact lens solution, it’s time to throw it away. Every new contact lens solution comes with a case – use it.
- Your bottle of contact solution should be thrown away every 30-45 days, so don’t be fooled into buying the ultra-huge bottle at Costco. By day 45, your solution will be swimming with bacteria that you are then bathing your contact lenses in every night.
- Re-using bath water or water in your kitchen sink for 3 days straight is a bad idea. Topping off your contact lens solution instead of replacing it daily is an equally bad idea.
- Every night that you sleep in your contacts, you increase your risk of a corneal ulcer. Some people fall asleep in their contacts consistently without any problems for years. Others accidentally fall asleep in them for the first time and wake up with an ulcer. You will know right away if this happens to you. Patients describe the pain as a 10 on a 1-10 pain scale.
If you wear contacts, like many of Doctor Amy Jankowski’s patients, consider switching to glasses at least one day a week or in the evening at home to prevent complications from over-wear. Need new frames? Shop Metro Eye all February long and save 50-65% on select frames! Look Better. See Better.