If you just got your first pair of contact lenses, it is important that you understand and adopt healthy habits for taking care of your contacts. If you don't learn how to properly care for your contacts, you put yourself at risk of developing an eye infection. Here are three essential rules for new contact lenses users that will help you take care of your new contact lenses and that will help ensure that your eyes stay healthy.
Always Wash Your Hands Before Handling Your Contacts
The first and most important rule that you need to follow is that you should only touch your contacts when your hands are clean. Before you touch your contacts to put them in your eye or to adjust them when they are already in your eye, you should always wash your hands. Wash your hands thoroughly with soap and water, rinse them off and dry them.
Ideally, you should dry your hands off with a lint-free towel to ensure that you don't transfer any lint onto your contacts and into your eyes. If a lint-free towel is not available, check your hands closely after you dry them and make sure that there is not any lint on them before touching your contacts or your eyes.
This is the simplest way that you can protect your contacts and your eyes from developing an infection.
Replace Your Lenses On Time
Secondly, it is vitally important that you do not try to extend the life of your contacts. Your contacts are only designed to be worn for a specific period of time. After the period of time that they are designed for, your contacts will start breaking down and your risk of infection increases greatly. Different types of lenses are designed to be worn for different periods of time, so, if in doubt about when to replace them, check with your eye doctor or pharmacist.
Don't Hold Onto Your Lens Case For Too Long
An often overlooked issue is that it is just as important to change out your contact lens case as it is your contact lenses. Every couple of months you should throw out your contact lens case and purchase a new one. Over time, your contact lens case can become a source of contamination for your lenses. Even if you properly clean your contact lens case, you still need to change it out every few months to protect your eye health. You should also never use a lens case that has cracks in it or has become damaged in any way; that only increases the risk to your contacts and to your eyes.
Be sure to follow the three essential rules above if you want to keep your eyes healthy and safe as a contact lenses wearer.
Share4 August 2016
Hi, I'm Deena, and as I neared middle age, I noticed that my eyesight wasn't as good as it used to be. I first started out needing reading glasses to read the small print in magazines, and then a few months later, I had to put them on to see the computer screen clearly. I knew by then that my eyes were getting worse and that I needed to do something quickly. I made an appointment with the optometrist and the doctor gave me an eye exam. Even though my sight wasn't as bad as I had feared, I still needed prescription glasses. I love my new glasses because I can actually see now. I have put together a lot of information about eye problems, eye tests and even various types of eye wear so that others don't wait as long as I did to see the eye doctor.