Summary: Infections that occur in the eyes due to a lack of proper care or cleaning can lead to visual impairment and even blindness. It’s important to emphasize cleanliness and good hygiene every time you wear your lenses.
Roughly 80 to 90 percent of contact-related eye infections are bacterial. Moreover, many involve a common, but tough to treat, type of bacteria called staphylococcus aureus. Severe cases may involve pseudomonas aeruginosa, which is a fast-growing bacterial infection that can create a hole in the cornea. Patients that suffer from this type of infection have a high chance of blindness or permanent scarring.
The good news is you can usually avoid these infections with the proper cleaning and maintenance routine. Here are some tips that reiterate your eye doctor’s instructions.
Keep an Eye Out for Any Signs of Infection
Eye infections generally have physical symptoms like painful eyes, irritation or discharge. If you are suffering from any of these symptoms or believe something could be wrong with your eyes, get it checked out by a doctor immediately. Risking an infection could potentially lead to losing your eyesight.
Never Use Water with Contact Lenses
Water may contain pollutants or pathogens that cause the infections mentioned above so be sure to avoid showering or swimming with your contact lenses on, according to Lens.com. Swimming actually presents serious problems. The vast number of bacteria within a pool can produce a serious infection caused by free-floating amoeba. This type of infection can cause visual impairment and even blindness in some cases.
If you have exposed your contact lenses to water of any sorts, you may want to dig into that new contact lenses that you purchased instead of wearing the same pair. I recommended brand is Bausch and Lomb.