5th, June 2020 | Oh Jinna
8 Risky Contact Lens Case Habits to Avoid
Importance of Contact Lens Case Care
If you’re a contact lens user, you already know how important it is to keep your lenses clean. After all, wearing dirty lenses can lead to eye problems that you definitely want to avoid.
However, lens care goes beyond cleaning your lenses. In fact, cleaning your contact lens case is equally as important. Why? Because your lenses won’t ever be clean if you store them in a dirty case.
The Danger of Bad Contact Lens Case Habits
Contact lenses are becoming very popular these days. From visual correction to cosmetic purposes, people all over the world find contacts to be very useful. However, did you know that around 90 percent of contact lens users don’t practice proper lens care habits?
With this in mind, are you sure that you’re keeping your eyes safe from harm? After all, using dirty lenses can lead to eye infections and vision loss if you’re not careful.
If you feel worried, simply check out our list of bad contact lens case habits that you shouldn’t be doing.
1. Not Disinfecting Your Hands
Handling your contact lens case or lenses without disinfecting your hands is a common mistake to avoid. This step is so crucial that you’ll find it in most contact lens care guidelines.
This is due to the fact that your hands come into contact with a lot of surfaces throughout the day. As a result, you can easily contaminate your case and lenses if you don’t wash your hands before touching them.
You can follow these simple steps to avoid contaminating your case with your hands:
- Wash your hands with running water and soap before touching your case.
- Make sure to thoroughly rinse and dry your hands.
- Don’t wash your hands with any cream or lotion as this may stick to your case.
- Dry your hands with a microfiber cloth to avoid putting particles in your lens case.
- Make it a habit to wash your hands frequently even when you’re not handling your lenses.
2. You Don’t Wash Your Case Regularly
With so much stuff to do, we may often forget about simple routines like washing our contact lens case regularly. After all, you may think that your contact lens solution is strong enough to keep it clean for days.
However, you should stop this habit because it can lead to eye problems if you’re not careful.
You still need to frequently wash your case despite using the right lens solution. In fact, the label on your solution should have instructions on how to clean your lenses and case.
To be precise, you need to clean your case daily to avoid any build up of dirt or bacteria. In other words, you should always put new solutions in your case every time you take out your lenses.
Additionally, wiping your case with a clean solution should also help keep your case clean.
3. Using Water to Clean Your Lenses
You may have already encountered a situation where there’s no contacts solution available. Considering how we normally use water to wash most of our stuff, you may have used it for your lenses.
If so, you should never do this again. In fact, you’re lucky that the water didn’t contaminate your lenses and case. After all, there are a lot of water related ocular diseases that can lead to vision loss.
In summary, there are lots of bacteria and particles that live in our water. As a result, you should play it safe and avoid getting your lenses wet. Additionally, you shouldn’t use water to clean your contact lens case too.
Instead, you should simply use disinfecting solutions that are specifically designed for your lenses. And don’t forget to read the label and follow the instructions of your solution, ok?
4. Your Contact Lens Case is Old
You might not be aware about this, but you need to change your contact lenses case at some point. And we’re not talking about years! In fact, you should get a new case every three months or so.
This is because microorganisms and bacteria can create a biofilm that allows them to survive from disinfecting solutions. Additionally, you can’t really see the biofilm with your eyes.
In other words, your contact lens case eventually gets too dirty for your lenses. As a result, you’re better off playing it safe and buying a new case every three months.
So don’t put yourself at risk and simply change your lenses after three months.
5. You Reuse Old Disinfecting Solution
Do you practice topping off? Topping off is a habit of adding fresh solutions to your old ones. This is a very bad hygienic habit that you should avoid or stop doing! Why?
Because adding a fresh set of solutions won’t disinfect your old ones. In fact, the bacteria and microorganisms in your old solution will end up contaminating your new solution.
As a result, you’re going to have a dirty contact lens case with dirty lenses.
Bacteria thrive in moist places and your contact lens case fits the description. This means that bacteria can start to build up if you don’t throw your old solution.
That’s why you should always throw away the solution in your contact lens case regularly. In addition, you should also wash your case and add a new solution too.
6. Using Old Lenses
Are you guilty of over using your contact lenses? For starters, there are a lot of different types of contact lenses in the market. For example, you can wear some lenses for longer periods of time while other lenses have shorter expiration dates.
Whichever the case, you need to know which type of lens you have and how to use it properly.
For starters, you shouldn’t be using worn out lenses especially when they’re expired. In fact, you shouldn’t even put old lenses in your lens case. You may think that storing them with a fresh solution might help.
However, doing this will potentially contaminate your contact lens case. This is because worn out lenses can be too dirty or damaged which can lead to serious eye problems.
7. Storing Your Case in the Bathroom
Do you find the convenience in storing your lens case in the bathroom? After all, it’s fairly convenient to put on your lenses right after you wash up, right? Well, it’s for you to kick out this common bad lens habit.
This is because your contact lens case is prone to contamination in the bathroom.
First of all, most of our bathrooms are considerably humid compared to regular rooms. This means that there are more chances of bacteria to build up. On top of that, droplets from your sink can potentially reach your case and contaminate it.
Finally, your toilet is also prone to release microorganisms that are unpleasant to your body. With this in mind, it’s best to store your contact lens case in a dry and clean environment.
8. You Don’t Get Your Eyes Checked
Around 99 percent of American contact lens users have at least one bad hygienic habit. As a result, there are a lot of eye problems related to the use of contacts.
However, this shouldn’t stop you from wearing contacts. After all, most of these eye problems are common and easy to fix. You just need to make sure that you get your eyes checked as soon as you feel something is not right.
The worst thing you can do is keep your eye problem to yourself until it gets worse. Some people shrug off minor symptoms of eye irritation because of how minimal it feels.
However, even minor irritations can lead to bigger eye problems if left unchecked. Contact lenses are safe to use, however, you should be responsible for your eye health.
That’s why you should regularly visit an eye doctor and have your eyes checked for diseases. Finally, if you feel something bothering your eyes, contact an eye doctor as early as you can.
Contact Lens Case Conclusion
You shouldn’t miss out on the rising trend of cosmetic lenses like colored lenses and cosplay contact lenses. After all, both corrective and cosmetic lenses can be very useful. In fact, colored contact lenses can change your eye color and give you a fresh look.
However, owning a pair of lenses also means that you have to take good care of them. From cleaning habits to lens care, you need to make sure to follow the right guidelines.
Good lens habits may seem daunting at first, however, they’re really not as difficult to follow. All you have to do is to practice and maintain good cleaning habits.
In a couple of weeks, you’re going to do these good habits without even thinking about them. The key is to keep practicing these habits until they become a part of your daily routine.
And finally, you’ll be able to enjoy the benefits of your contact lenses with ease!
Related Blogs:
CONTACT LENS CARE: PREVENT EYE INFECTION AS YOU KEEP YOUR CONTACT LENSES CLEAN
TYPES OF CONTACT LENS SOLUTION YOU NEED TO KNOW
5 TYPES OF CONTACT LENSES THAT YOU SHOULD KNOW
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS ABOUT COSPLAY COLORED CONTACT LENSES
CHOOSE THE BEST COLORED CONTACT LENS FOR YOU
TOP 5 BENEFITS OF CONTACT LENSES
References:
Warning Suggested for Contact Solutions
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