Article 31: Contact Lens Infection

This is Dr. Kyle Tate with Insight Eyecare, your Sapulpa eye doctor. Today we’re going to talk about eye infections that you can get from contact lenses. Hopefully this is something that never happens to you. If you or anyone you know wears contact lenses and they suspect that they have an eye infection, reach out to us at Insight Eyecare, your Sapulpa eye doctor. We treat all different types of eye infections; bacterial infections, viral infections, and many others. As your Sapulpa eye doctor we see patients of all ages from grandparents, kids, infants, babies, and everything in between.

Insight Eyecare is easy to find! We are located in Glenpool across from Simple Simon’s Pizza and IHOP. Here at Insight Eyecare, we have a large eye glasses gallery with over 1000 eyeglasses to meet all your wants and needs. As your Sapulpa eye doctor, we work very hard to find the finest labs and give you the best vision possible out of your glasses. Our team at Insight Eyecare wants to be your Sapulpa eye doctor for all your eyecare and eyewear needs.

Today we are talking about eye infections from contact lenses. A goal when wearing contact lenses is to never have an eye infection caused by over-wearing contact lenses. One of the best and newest improvements in contacts is Dailies! Switching from a contact lens that you reuse day after day to a contact lens that gets replaced every single day can significantly improve eye safety. Almost all contact lens wearers know the feeling of a fresh brand-new contact lens on the eye. That’s what daily contacts can offer. Having that fresh feeling every single day and not having to worry about eye infections is an incredible feeling.

The number one way to keep yourself from having eye infections, which are caused by your contact lenses, is to take the contacts out every night. By not taking out your contacts and sleeping in them you basically create a petri dish for things to grow on inside your eye. You have a warm moist contact lens which bacteria can grab onto in your eye. Your tears give them the nutrients they need. With your eyes closed and asleep the lack of oxygen makes your tissue more susceptible to getting an infection. As your Sapulpa eye doctor, if you suspect you have an infection you need to see us immediately so that we can help out. The longer you wait with an eye infection the worse the damage will become and the higher the risk of vision impairment, blindness, or losing the eye.

The most common issue when people have an eye infection is redness and pain. We tell our patients at Insight Eyecare that if their eyes are red they need to immediately stop wearing their contacts. If it does not go away within one day, come and see us. As your Sapulpa eye doctor, we tell our patients to discontinue their contacts immediately and come see us for an evaluation if they have pain in their eyes. At that point we will examine the eyes to see if there is an eye infection from contact lenses. As your Sapulpa eye doctor, we stress that time is of the upmost importance when we think there could be an infection. It is of extreme importance for your Sapulpa eye doctor to get the right type of medicine to help fight the infection.

Some of the other ways to help prevent infection are simply removing contacts and using proper cleaning techniques with proper cleaning solutions. We discussed this in a little more detail in our last article. There is also a lot more information our website about this. Around 95% of our patients use a multipurpose cleaning solution. To make this most effective after the contacts have been removed, the contacts one at a time need to be rubbed between the palm of the hand and a finger with a few drops of the multipurpose solution. After this step to have safe contact lenses you need to soak the contacts in a clean case with fresh solution every single night for 6 to 8 hours. In the morning the contacts do not need to be rinsed in modern-day contact lens solutions. Another part of this process that patients commonly overlook is the contact lens case they use. It is very common for patients to hang on to one case for an entire year or more. Some patients will clean their case properly with tap water thinking this helps out. In reality we know the contact lens cases need to be replaced every three months and they should never be rinsed with tap water. To properly clean a contact lens case you need to use contact lens solution only. The reason tap water is not safe is that tap water has some very bad types of microbials that are not killed in contact lens solutions. These are things like acanthamoeba that antibiotics will not help you with. Once again I would like to stress that the safest types of contacts are actually daily replacement contacts using new sterile clean contacts every single day. These are the types of contacts that your Sapulpa Eye Doctor will recommend foremost. You should look forward to an upcoming article that discusses this more detail.

Our mission at Insight Eyecare is to improve every life in every encounter. As your Sapulpa eye Doctor, we want you to remember if you experience any of these symptoms you may reach out to us at Insight Eyecare. We want all our patients to have healthy eyes. We want them to have healthy eyes, and the best vision possible so they can see the beauty around them and enjoy their lives. If you think you or anyone you know has an eye infection please encourage them to come see us at Insight Eyecare, your Sapulpa eye doctor, immediately so that we can help heal their eyes. We have a welcoming staff, a state-of-the-art facility with amazing new equipment, our large eyeglasses gallery, and thousands of contact lens in stock to meet all your needs as a patient. Your Sapulpa Eye Doctor reminds you that we treat all types of common diseases, such as eye infections from contacts, dry eyes, allergies, cataracts, and many more. We want you to bring us your eye problem so we can help improve your life. Thank you guys, God bless you, and have a great day.

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