Contact lenses are a great solution for those that need support to see day-to-day but aren’t keen on wearing glasses. Statistics show that last year in the UK and Ireland, 8.95% of the population wore contact lenses – with 5.2% of this number wearing daily disposable lenses. While contact lenses are a popular choice for those that need extra help with their sight, they do require a good level of hygiene and care to ensure you look after your lenses the best you can. Here are 4 tips for wearing contact lenses:
1. Store your contacts correctly
If you wear daily contact lenses you don’t need to worry about storing them correctly since you’ll just throw them away after each wear. However, for other types of lenses, storing them correctly is important to keep them in good nick. It’s important to carefully remove your lenses with clean hands to prevent conjunctivitis or other eye-related diseases, before cleaning them individually with lens solution. As basic as it sounds, remember to store the right lens in the right compartment, and the left in the other so you never mix up your lenses when you put them back in your eyes the next day.
2. Thoroughly rinse your contacts
It’s important to clean your contact lenses after you wear them after you wear them to remove any build-up which may have happened over the day like wear and tear from makeup or eye drops. Use your recommended contact lens solution to clean your lenses, taking care to refer to your contact lens solution instruction guide for information about how long you need to soak your lenses. This guide will also inform you how often you should change the solution if you don’t wear your lenses daily. And remember, never use tap water in your case or on your contact lenses since the bacteria and microbes in water could easily cause a nasty eye infection…
3. Replace your contacts frequently
For those that wear daily contact lenses, it’s easy to remember to replace them at the end of each day. However, if you wear reusable lenses it’s also essential to make sure you’re not over-wearing them and are refreshing them regularly. A good rule of thumb is to replace these lenses as often as your optometrist advised, or when they start to look worn or don’t clean properly.
4. Regularly get your eyes tested
Even if you don’t encounter any problems with your lenses, it’s recommended to still book in for regular eye examinations. Eye tests can help optometrists detect conditions like cataracts, glaucoma and age-related macular degeneration, which are important to identify and treat to prevent sight loss or poor vision. As well as detecting eye conditions, regular eye examinations are good for seeing whether your prescription has changed – and getting new contact lenses to suit this. It’s worth seeing if you’re eligible for a free eye test on the NHS, but in general, it’s advised that you get your eyes tested every 2 years.
Whether you’re a first-time lens wearer or have used contact lenses for years, these 4 tips will ensure you look after your lenses (and your eyes) the best you can.
