8 Smart Hygiene Habits for Contact Lens Wearers

1. Get Eye Examinations Regularly

Whether you are a contact lens wearer or not, getting a thorough eye examination performed by an optometrist, once or twice a year is a healthy practice. It ensures that you stay updated on your eye health and prevent any severe conditions. Additionally, you must always consult with your eye specialist before making any change to your contact lenses wear and care.

2. Never share your contact lenses with others

Sharing contact lenses is a line you must not cross, even if it is with a family member or your best friend. Whether it is your prescribed lenses or coloured contact lenses, sharing and swapping of lenses can lead to eye infections and other problems such as corneal ulcers. So, share healthy habits if you must, but not your contact lenses.

3. Don't Sleep While Wearing Your Contact Lenses

It's essential to allow your cornea to breathe as sleeping with your contact lenses on can cause eye redness, soreness and possibly infections. Remember to remove your contact lenses before you go to bed. Even if you are using speciality lenses that can be worn overnight, try and avoid going to sleep while wearing contact lenses. Doing so helps your eyes to breathe, and thus maintains its health.

4. Wash Your Hands

Whether you use daily, bi-weekly, or monthly disposable contact lenses, wash your hands thoroughly before wearing contact lenses. Use soap to wash your hands and dry them with a clean tissue or towel before inserting contacts lenses into your eyes. Your hands can carry germs into your eyes, and this one single step of washing your hands properly can make a huge difference in maintaining your eye health by preventing eye infections.

5. Clean Your Contacts Daily

Unless you use daily disposable contact lenses, you need to disinfect and clean your contact lenses daily. To ensure proper and effective cleansing of your contact lenses, you need to use prescribed lens care solutions. Consult with your eye care practitioner to find out which is the best cleaning solution for your contact lenses and eyes.

6. Avoid Contact with Water

Water can harm your contact lenses. Apart from your prescribed lens care solution, using any other form of liquid such as tap water, filter water or saliva to clean or moisten your contact lenses can cause eye infections as it contains impurities and microorganisms. Additionally, using tap water can induce swelling or change the shape of your contact lenses because of the germs water can carry to your lenses. For the same reason, it is advised that you don’t swim while wearing contact lenses, and instead use protective gears such as goggles in case it is required for your to swim or enjoy water sports, the only option is using daily disposable lenses with protective swimming googles over them. Do not forget to discard the lenses immediately once you are out of water

7. Contact Lens Case Care

Cleaning and disinfecting your contact lenses with a prescribed lens care solution is important, and so is storing it in a clean and disinfected lens case. While not in use you need to rinse your lens storage case with a lens solution, wipe it with a clean tissue and place it on a fresh tissue or paper towel to let it dry. Keep the case bottom side up, so that no dust or dirt can settle on it.

It is recommended that you change your lens case every two to three months, as various kinds of germs and microscopic bacteria can linger around the case, which can lead to eye infections. You also need to make sure that you don’t keep your lens case open and lying around for bacteria to accumulate inside or outside the case.

8. Do Not Top Off Over Old Lens Care Solution

Just like you shouldn't ever mix rotten food with fresh food, you shouldn't top off your existing solution in the lens case with clean lens care solution. When you do so, it hampers the capability of the lens solution to cleanse and disinfect your contact lenses properly as the mixture (old and fresh lens solution) may not be able to destroy all microorganisms effectively.

Always use a multi-purpose lens care solution to store your contact lenses, after thoroughly disinfecting the lens case to avoid any eye problems.

To wear contact lenses safely, you need a little commitment when it comes to caring for them. We hope these habits mentioned above, can help you practice better contact lens wear and care. Your eyes are precious and maintaining their health is your responsibility, so ensure that you do your best to protect them.

Multi-Purpose Lens Care Solutions for Rinsing, Cleaning and Disinfecting Contact Lenses

Multi-purpose lens care solutions pack the benefits of cleaning, rinsing, disinfecting, and storing your contact lenses. Bausch+Lomb offers the following soft lens multi-purpose lens care solutions:

• Biotrue Multi-purpose solution

Biotrue multi-purpose lens care solution was developed following an intensive study on how the eye works naturally to hydrate, clean, and keep itself healthy. Biotrue solution matches the pH of healthy tears and utilizes a lubricant found naturally in the eyes and keeps the beneficial tears proteins active. You can use the solution to clean, remove protein build-up, disinfects, rinse, and store various types of Soft contact lenses, including silicone hydrogel lenses.*

• renu Advanced Formula Multi-Purpose Solution

The renu Advanced Formula Multi-Purpose Solution has a unique triple disinfectant system to remove 99.9% of germs and is suitable for daily cleaning of contact lenses. The renu Advanced solution delivers up to 20 hours of moisture, all-day wearing comfort and helps prevent the formation of deposits on the lenses.*

• renu fresh Multi-Purpose Solution

The renu fresh multi-purpose solution is proven to clean contact lenses, fight germs, and remove irritating protein deposits. You can use renu fresh multi-purpose solution with all types of Soft contact lenses.*

Follow Instructions Thoroughly

When you buy contact lenses, they come with contact lens cases, its cleaning solution and your eye care professional's instructions and recommendations. The packaging is designed to deliver the best eye care and performance for your visual aid and its care. Visiting your eye care specialist regularly and diligently following instructions ensures that your eyes stay healthy and problem-free.

Bausch+Lomb contact lens care products offer easy to follow and effective solutions that clean, rinse, and disinfect (store/kill germs) your contact lenses, keeping them fresh. Explore our range of advanced lens care and contact lenses to begin your journey towards clearer vision today!

Sources:
https://www.aao.org/eye-health/glasses-contacts/contact-lens-care
https://www.aoa.org/patients-and-public/caring-for-your-vision/contact-lenses/what-you-need-to-know-about-contact-lens-hygiene-and-compliance