Contact lenses: the perfect match for summer?

In summer, contact lenses are many people’s best friend, as they help them enjoy their holidays, and increase comfort.

Eyeglasses become a discomfort and contact lenses provide not only higher comfort, but also a wider visual field, as they eliminate the annoying eyeglasses arms. Moreover, they offer the advantage of not getting steamed up nor causing annoying reflexes.

Nevertheless, in order to use contact lenses, it is necessary to bear in mind a series of advices and use the lenses prescribed by the ophthalmologist for each specific case.

How to correctly put contact lenses on

In order to correctly put on your lenses, it is important to stick to the following guidelines:

1. Thoroughly wash and dry your hands.
2. Take the contact lens from its storage case and check which eye it belongs to.
3. Place the lens on your index finger and check that the lens is proper and that it is not upside-down:
4. Hold your upper eyelid with the middle finger of your other hand, and the lower eyelid with the hand that holds the lens.
5. Place the lens inside your eye while looking upwards.
6. Take your finger out once the lens is placed and gradually release your lower eyelid and, then, the upper eyelid.

Once the lenses are placed, we can enjoy the wonders of summer! However, certain care needs to be taken with lenses, especially when used to go to the beach or to the swimming pool. In those cases, several things must be kept in mind:

• Swim goggles must be used whenever we are inside the water.
• Washing your hands is always necessary before handling or cleaning contact lenses, especially if we have been in contact with chlorine, sand or sun screen.
• After bathing, we must wait for some time, and then remove the lenses in order to clean them with a specific solution aiming to eliminate every germ.
• Cleanings must be performed carefully.
• When wearing contact lenses, eyes must be always protected with sunglasses every time we are outdoors.

Remember that one of the most important causes of infection or corneal ulcer is the careless use of contact lenses. They are a foreign body inside our eyes, and they need to be taken care of in order to avoid infections caused by substances and germs they come into contact. Moreover, heat, chemical substances in swimming pool water and sea salt often cause during this time of the year irritating, viral or bacterial conjunctivitis, which may cause symptoms such as eye redness, stinging, burning and foreign body sensation, with light sensitivity or tearing.

Other general advices

• It is not recommended to wear contact lenses for more than 8 consecutive hours.
• Never sleep with contact lenses on.
• Do not consistently rub your eyes if you are wearing contacts, as this could lead to corneal irritations or lesions.
• Never clean contact lenses with tap water.
• It is important to keep them always in special solutions and bear in mind the date of opening and expiry date.
• Solution in the contact lens case (in case they are not single-use contacts) must be replaced on a daily basis and never kept in areas exposed to the sun.
• Contact lenses must be replaced by new contacts when appropriate (there are monthly, fortnightly, annual contact lenses…).
• In case you are travelling with your contact lenses, bring a replacement with you, together with your eyeglasses, in order to combine them or replace them whenever necessary.
• In high climate-controlled environments, such as airplanes, contact lenses dry up and cause discomfort. Therefore, it is recommended to wear eyeglasses or bring eye drops with you, so they can be administered if necessary.

In summer, do not blindly jump into the deep end: take special care of your contact lenses!