Contact lens mistakes you should never make
Contact lenses are convenient and are growing in popularity. In addition the practical aids also ever more favorably become, that is particularly due to Internet and price comparisons for contact lenses. In certain situations – when playing sports, at the beach or in the swimming pool for example – they are simply much better than glasses.
What should be considered when using contact lenses?
Even if you wear contact lenses only occasionally, there are a few important things you have to keep in mind in order not to harm your eyes.
1. Ordering and wearing contact lenses “just like that
Contact lenses are not subject to prescription in Germany, but they are a medical product, which should be chosen with appropriate care. For this we have opticians here in Germany. Only an ophthalmologist or optician can judge whether a contact lens fits properly. Therefore, when choosing the right contact lens should be accompanied by a professional in any case.
Should you ignore this and order and wear contact lenses “just like that”, the lens may fit too tightly. You do not notice this, because the eye itself is quite insensitive to pain. The eye is supplied by the pupil me oxygen and if a contact lens fits too tightly, it no longer works with the oxygen supply.
This is very bad for the eye. First red veins form on the eyeball, later the eye is really damaged. The red veins are no longer reversible – they remain forever.
This does not mean that you should not order contact lenses on the Internet, but the initial fitting must be done by a professional!
2. Transfer contact lenses
Sure, some days are longer than others and maybe you just want to be out in the evening without glasses. Nevertheless, you must be careful not to significantly exceed the specific wearing times. For example, if you want to party through the night with contact lenses, you should wear glasses until the afternoon.
In addition to the daily wearing times, you must also keep in mind the wearing intervals of the contact lenses. Monthly lenses are usually for 30 days. The big misconception here: This doesn’t mean 30 days of wear, but 30 days from when the contact lens package was opened. At this point the contact lens begins to germinate and it doesn’t matter how often it has been in the eye.
Also a look at the best-before date is appropriate, if you bought your contact lenses cheap on eBay.
3. Cleaning contact lenses poorly
Unless you have daily disposable lenses, you have to clean your contact lenses thoroughly after use. This is always a bit annoying, because it is usually in the evening and you are tired anyway. But it is absolutely necessary to do it regularly and correctly.
For this purpose, there are appropriate cleaning solutions, but just put them in is not enough, you really have to rub them by hand. Hands must be washed thoroughly with soap beforehand – no matter how clean they look. The lens must then lie 4-6 hours in the disinfectant solution to be properly disinfected and thus ready for use again the next morning.
Never use tap water! The lens case should also be cleaned thoroughly once a week and replaced more often.
4. Buy contact lenses only from the optician around the corner
Small optician stores get purchase prices from the manufacturers that are higher than the prices the lenses cost on the internet. And even between online opticians, price differences of 50% are not uncommon, if you look at popular contact lenses like the Air Optix Aqua.
For the first fitting you have to go to an optician in any case and also to regular checkups. Many opticians are of course disappointed and even feel cheated if you then do not buy the contact lenses there, but on the Internet. Who is fair, tells the optician honestly and pays for the refraction & control, if he orders contact lenses on the Internet.
5. Do not own glasses
Many contact lens wearers do not own suitable glasses. Should one have a significant visual impairment, this is very reckless. On the beach a little sand in the eye, or you get an annoying, but in principle harmless eye inflammation by draught. Suddenly you are forced to wear your contact lenses due to the lack of an alternative in the form of glasses. Although the eye burns or itches. If the eye becomes inflamed, you will be unable to work in many professions.
Therefore, every contact lens wearer with significant vision loss should really have glasses in his prescription. Ideally one puts these into the car around not also still fahruntaglich to be or possibly with only one lens einäugig to have to drive.
Glasses for this purpose can be disposed of cheaply, usually ca. 50€, order from online opticians.
6. Swimming with monthly lenses
Yes, going to the swimming pool with glasses is impractical and without vision aid you are blind. That’s why contact lenses are so great in the pool. But chlorine, which kills bacteria in water, is not so good for our eyes and irritates the conjunctiva and disturbs the tear film. The soft contact lenses will still release the chlorinated water to the eye if you have not been in the pool for a long time.
That’s why optometrists recommend wearing goggles when swimming, or getting additional daily disposable lenses. You then put the daily lens in before swimming and replace it with the usual monthly lenses after swimming.
This is also recommended for wearers of hard contact lenses, but for other reasons. Hard contact lenses do not absorb chlorinated water, but they do not adhere to the eye as well as soft contact lenses do. So it can happen quickly that the hard contact lens is rinsed out of the eye and then it is most likely not to be found again.
7. Dispose of contact lenses in the toilet
contact lenses are made of a material that is difficult to degrade in nature. All processes in the sewage treatment plant are designed for organic substances and our contact lenses pass through almost unchanged. They then end up in fields via sewage sludge or in the sea as microplasics. And we all don’t want that – so off to the dustbin you go!
