Please call or text our office at (907) 272-9800 to request an appointment.

alarm-ringing ambulance angle2 archive arrow-down arrow-left arrow-right arrow-up at-sign baby baby2 bag binoculars book-open book2 bookmark2 bubble calendar-check calendar-empty camera2 cart chart-growth check chevron-down chevron-left chevron-right chevron-up circle-minus circle city clapboard-play clipboard-empty clipboard-text clock clock2 cloud-download cloud-windy cloud clubs cog cross crown cube youtube diamond4 diamonds drop-crossed drop2 earth ellipsis envelope-open envelope exclamation eye-dropper eye facebook file-empty fire flag2 flare foursquare gift glasses google graph hammer-wrench heart-pulse heart home instagram joystick lamp layers lifebuoy link linkedin list lock magic-wand map-marker map medal-empty menu microscope minus moon mustache-glasses paper-plane paperclip papers pen pencil pie-chart pinterest plus-circle plus power printer pushpin question rain reading receipt recycle reminder sad shield-check smartphone smile soccer spades speed-medium spotlights star-empty star-half star store sun-glasses sun tag telephone thumbs-down thumbs-up tree tumblr twitter tiktok wechat user users wheelchair write yelp youtube

Common Mistakes that Contact Lens Wearers Make

4-Woman_with_Contact_Lens_page4Here is a great article from Thomas Quinn, O.D., AOA Contact Lens and Cornea Section (CLCS) chair, that discusses the six common bad habits that contact lens wearers make. Many of these can be avoided by wearing daily disposable contact lenses.

Bad news practices

  1. Overstayed welcome. Studies have indicated around half of disposable and frequent replacement lens users wear lenses longer than their recommended schedule. What barometer do patients use to change their lenses? They wait until the lenses become bothersome. “That’s like saying, ‘I’m going to wear my underwear until they start to bother me,'” Dr. Quinn says. “No, you change them before they start to bother you.”
  2. Caught dirty-handed. The cleanest, daily disposable lenses are all for naught if wearers do not wash their hands before handling their lenses. Dr. Quinn recalled a teenage patient with daily disposable lenses who persistently would be treated for corneal infiltrative events (CIEs). He learned the teen’s hands were never washed before handling lenses.
  3. Damp digits. The flip side of the coin: Although most patients do think to wash their hands, sometimes they forget to dry their hands before handling contact lenses. Water can harbor harmful microorganisms that can be transferred onto the lens and subsequently onto the eye if wearers fail to dry their hands with a clean surface.
  4. No respect for the system. Not all contact lens care systems are created equal, in terms of disinfection, and chemical sensitivities and incompatibilities with lens materials. Patients might opt for a cheaper, generic solution as opposed to the care system specifically designed for their lenses. “The cheapest solution isn’t always the best solution,” Dr. Quinn says.
  5. A case of grimy cases. Proper contact lens care extends to storage cases, as well. The AOA recommends wearers replace lens cases at least every three months, and cases should be cleaned and disinfected periodically in between. But Dr. Quinn says that information tends to be lost on patients, and optometrists are partly to blame—how to care for cases is the overall top question submitted to contactlenssafety.org. Dr Quinn: “People aren’t caring for their cases, but partly because they don’t know how to do it.”
  6. Dozing dangers. And finally, people snoozing in contact lenses that are not designed to be slept in are at a five times higher risk of developing CIEs, according to some studies.Even extended wear lenses carry some risk of infection as compared to daily wear lenses.