If you wear contacts and they get dirty, you put that dirt directly into your eye.
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The researchers also found that at least one out of four infections associated with contacts could have easily been prevented.
Researchers noted their findings are limited by several factors, partly because they don’t represent the incidence or prevalence of contact lens misuse.
Researchers say eye damage due to inappropriate use of contacts occurred in nearly 20 percent or one in every five contact lens-related infections in the country, based on 1,075 cases reported to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) from 2005 to 2015.
“Contact lenses are a safe and effective form of vision correction when worn and cared for as recommended”, Michael Beach, director of the CDC’s Healthy Water Program, said in a news release about the study. But, in case when proper care is not taken then contact lens can lead to serious eye infections that may result in long-term eye damage, reported CBSNews.
The report is based on the review of over 1,000 contact lens-related infections reported in the FDA between 2005 and 2015. These include wearing contact lenses while sleeping and wearing them longer than recommended. However, Americans are not following instructions properly.
The first is not to sleep with your contact lenses in. Cases in the CDC report describe daily visits of patients to doctors or even hourly administration of eye drops to treat the infection.
More than 10 percent of the reports indicated that the patient went to an emergency department or urgent care clinic for immediate care. The infections were reported to a federal database.
Schedule a yearly visit to the doctor to examine the evolution of your prescription and the eyesight’s health.
Mispropper use of contact lenses could lead to severe eye infections that can change or affect eyesight. But beware! It can trigger serious eye issues. She’s a medical epidemiologist in CDC’s Waterborne Disease Prevention Branch.
According to the CDC, people should not keep their contact lenses in while sleeping, because doing so raises the risk of eye infection by 6 to 8 times.
Dr. Mark Fromer, an ophthalmologist at Lenox Hill Hospital, said, “There is a serious health crisis with contact lens-related eye injuries”. People who do not replace their lenses as often as recommended have more complications and report more eye problems than those who follow the replacement recommendations.
Fromer offered his own tips.
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The NHS says that numerous three million-plus Britons who wear contact lenses don’t follow instructions on safe use.
