Even Discount Contact Lenses Need Looking After - Here's Why

By: John Jones

For such a delicate object so vital to our eye health, it's surprising what we actually do with them - even though they may be cheap thanks to all the discounted contact lens suppliers. We put them in our mouths to "clean" them, wear them for days on end, go swimming in them, rinse them in plain "bacteria infested" tap water, and 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.

Bacterial infections can cause painful inflammations in the cornea. Organisms living in tap water can colonize the eye and resist most drugs intending to kill them off. In severe cases, patients can go blind or require cornea transplants. In our area, the past 18 months has seen higher numbers of patients infected with a particularly nasty protozoan called 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.

They tried various drugs to clear, but after several months of nothing working, he had to have a cornea transplant. Doctors said it was the only way they could save his sight, as all of the medications they'd tried had been ineffective.

Unfortunately this young man is now facing another cornea transplant in is other eye - so it's imperative to keep your lenses clean all the time, and take great care of them.

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.

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Eye care consultant John Jones explains why, with so many discounted contact lens outlets selling cheap contact lenses it easy to overlook the importance of hygiene, and why contact lens cleaner is necessary

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