subject: Even Discount Contact Lenses Need Looking After - Here's Why [print this page] Cheap and discounted contact lenses - they're probably one of the most mistreated items we own, yet they're vital to healthy eyes. But with a few simple care tips we can really turn things around. With so many discount contact lens suppliers it's not even a major financial issue any more. Would you believe a recent survey discovered that lots of people clean their contact lens by licking or sucking them clean. Many people wear them for several days at a time without removing them; we sleep in them, swim in them and lean them with tap water (which has high levels of bacteria).
Yet it's easy to understand how we can take them for granted - the soft contact lenses in particular are so comfortable it's easy to forget about them. But by not taking care of them - a quick dip in some contact lens cleaner is all that's needed - we leave ourselves open to some rather nasty eye infections which can quickly lead to serious medical complications.
If you get a bacterial infection in your eyes it can create very serious problems and painful inflammation. I know we all believe tap water is healthy and safe, but that's not quite true. Organisms that live in tap water can grow and build colonies in your eyes, and even resist most drugs. I don't want to be a scaremonger, but in serious cases people have gone blind or needed to have cornea transplants. Over the past 24 months there have been increased incidences of infections of a protozoan known as Acanthamoeba.
Just recently, a young man in his early twenties (Rocco) had only been a contact lens wearer for a matter of months when got an infection that gave him throbbing pain in his left eye, which was also very inflamed and angry red inside. Unfortunately he was diagnosed with having Acanthamoeba.
The doctors tried various drugs and medications, but after 6 months of nothing working he was sent for a cornea transplant as the only way to save his sight in that eye. The Acanthamoeba had colonized his eye, and caused scar tissue which was now blurring his vision.
The operation on his first eye was a success, but he's now facing the exact same problem with his other eye. He now tells everybody he knows to make sure they keep their contact lens cleaner to hand and to clean their lenses every day.
Even with the recent surge in cases, Acanthamoeba is relatively rare. Outside an outbreak, doctors anticipate one or two cases for every million contact lens wearers. Bacterial infections are more common, affecting an estimated 1 in 2,500 contact lens wearers every year.
One of the main reasons you need to keep your lenses clean is that a contact lense interferes with your eyes natural defence system. Without a lens in your eye, every time you blink, you eyelid washes away any bacteria in there, and keeps your eye clean. When we put a contact lens in there, your eyelid is no longer in contact with the top layer of your eye, and therefore is unable to keep it clean. The cleaning job must now be done with your lens.
