How to Care for Your Contact Lenses
  • Sep 7, 2017
  • by Edward
  • 0
  • 1501

How to Care for Your Contact Lenses

Contact lenses look natural and are a great eyewear solution for many people. However, there’s no question that contacts require more detailed care than eyeglasses do. If you don’t properly care for your contact lenses, the consequences can be dire: you can get an eye infection, damage the lenses, and possibly even cause long-term damage to your eye. Many people don’t know the dangers of handling contact lenses and are inadvertently putting themselves at risk.

Fortunately, with proper care you won’t need to worry about any of these unfortunate outcomes. Here are three things to know about caring for your contacts if you want to keep your optical health—and your lenses—in top shape.

Disinfection is Key

Cleaning your contact lenses properly is the best way to prevent eye irritation or infection. Make sure your hands are clean, then follow the cleaning instructions for your specific brand of contact lenses.
When in doubt, it’s generally a good idea to rub the contact lenses with your fingers for a more effective clean. Rinse them with your contact lens solution, and make sure the nozzle of the solution bottle never comes into contact with any unclean surfaces. This helps prevent the transfer of potentially harmful bacteria.

Don’t Use Water

It’s vital that you never use water to clean or store your contact lenses, even if it’s filtered water. Water contains a number of bacteria that can be harmful to your contact lenses and your eyes themselves.
Try to always keep a backup bottle of your contact lens solution on hand in case you run out to avoid having to “make do” with water. You should also remove your contacts before doing any activities that might put your eyes in contact with water, such as swimming, to prevent any bacteria from reaching the lens.

Store Them Properly

When storing your contact lenses, always change out the solution and never re-use old solution in your lens case, as that can increase the likelihood of coming into contact with bacteria. Using new solution is the best way to keep your lenses clean.
You should also clean the case between uses to be sure you’re keeping it as sterile as possible and replace it every few months to make sure that no bacteria or particles have a chance to build up.

If you have any questions about your contact lenses or any other eye-related issues, an optometrist can help. At Eyesberg Optical Center, your Vancouver eyewear store, our licensed opticians are happy to answer any questions you might have about your vision care. We also carry a wide variety of sunglasses and eyeglass frames, including designer frames & sunglasses, in case you’d like to branch out from your contacts for a while.

In addition to designer brands, our Vancouver optical center offers eye examinations and other vision services to best suit your needs. Whether you need a sight test or just need to see a Vancouver optician, Eyesberg Optical is always ready to provide the quality eye care.