Contact Lens Neglect Dangerous
Many people, myself included, are soft contact lens wearers. Those of you who wear soft contacts know what a hassle it can be to properly care for your lenses. Many times lens care is inconvenient... especially late in the evening when you have had a long, tiring day. You just want to get them out of your eyes and go to bed. It takes forever to clean them before placing them in fresh disinfectant. Perhaps the disinfectant has been used several times without replacement. You neglect to clean the protein deposits off of the lens surface. Worst of all, you sleep in your contacts overnight!
Fortunately, most of my patients and my readers don't break the laws of soft contact lens care. Most take very good care of their lenses, and have no problems. However, lens mistreatment can lead to many common and some very serious eye conditions, two of which are bacterial keratitis and soft contact lens overwear.
Bacterial keratitis can be a soft contact lens wearer's (and their ophthalmologist's) worst nightmare. Bacterial keratitis is a bacterial infection, frequently in the form of an ulcer, on the surface of the clear cornea. It has a high incidence in individuals who improperly care for and inappropriately wear their lenses. Improperly cleaned and disinfected lenses harbor bacteria. Under the appropriate conditions, the cornea's epithelial barrier can be breached, leading to a sight threatening infection. Remember, the clear cornea is avascular, meaning it lacks blood vessels. This is good, because it provides a clear window to the world without vessels obscuring the view. However, it is also bad, because the cornea lacks an immediate immune system response to infection. Immune cells must migrate into the cornea from blood vessels in the white sclera. This slow migration gives the bacteria a head start on establishing an infection. To make matters worse, many times the contact is not removed at the first sign of irritation. This provides the bacteria protection from a cleansing tear film, accelerating the infectious process.
Soft contact lens overwear is a syndrome of sudden ocular inflammation which occurs after a tight fitting lens has been removed. Usually, the lens wearer will notice increasing ocular irritation throughout the day. However, when the lenses are finally removed, the eye will temporarily feel better, but will then become very red and irritated. The usual cause is a poorly hydrated contact lens which fails to move adequately on the surface of the eye, or a poorly fit soft contact lens. Soft contacts are made of plastic and water... a lot of water (up to seventy percent). The lens sits on the surface of the eye, riding on a thin tear film. If the eye becomes relatively dry this thin tear film can absorb into the lens and the lens will then "suck on" to the surface of the eye. This results in decreased oxygen to the corneal surface. That is when the eye irritation begins. However, once the tight lens is removed, the overabundant supply of oxygen rich tears allows the inflammatory response to develop full swing. Redness and light sensitivity soon follow.
Responsible care for soft contacts greatly reduces the risk of developing a corneal infection or ocular inflammation. Manufacturers of lens cleaning solutions are working diligently to produce effective cleaners and disinfectants that are simple and convenient to use. Even though simple cleaning systems may be inconvenient at times, the cleaning procedure must be properly followed. Contacts offer us great freedom from the burden of glasses. Enjoy the freedom but respect those little pieces of plastic. They can seriously damage your eyes.
