Caring For Your

Around 1.65million people in the UK wear contact lenses, either for occupational reasons, to enjoy activities where glasses are impractical, or simply for cosmetic reasons. Even with companies like Vision Direct selling contact lenses online, they’re still relatively expensive, and so good care and maintenance is essential, not just for the cost, but also for the health of your eyes Lenses.

Health professionals recommend three simply questions that you should ask yourself every time you put your contact lenses in:

1) Do my eyes feel good with my lenses?

This is actually a more awkward question than it seems, after all, putting your finger in your eye isn’t always the easiest thing to do. The lens should feel like it fits, like it goes in easily, and (after blinking two or three times) that you’re more or less unaware that it’s there. Your eye Lenses will react immediately if it’s uncomfortable, and if so, you should remove the lens immediately and book an appointment with an optician.

2) Do my eyes look good?

Primarily this is focussed at redness, if there are obvious signs of irritation you should take the lens out, but then you should also know that there’s irritation by the sensation you get when you put the lens in. Another thing to consider is how easy it is to see that you’re wearing lenses, a lens that fits well will be only slightly perceptible, if you can see them quite clearly, there’s probably a problem.

3) Can I see clearly?

This is, of course, the point of wearing contact lenses in the first place. You may find that you can see clearly when your eye is open, but that you get slight blurring when you blink (this suggests that the lens isn’t placed perfectly). If there’s something on the lens you may find that it’s not clear, in which case, take it out and clean it. Some people argue that lenses clean themselves in your eye, which is, to an extent, true. However, it’s actually your eye that is doing the cleaning and that dirt usually ends up staying around, so it’s not a good idea to wear dirty lenses.

There are hundreds of different lens brands around and thousands of tiny differences in composition. If you have a problem with one lens it doesn’t mean that you have a problem with lenses altogether, and a simple switch of brand could get you back on track. Contact lenses do cause eye health problems, and most of these are completely avoidable but people choose to ignore discomfort or wear their lenses less and less, neither of which are good solutions. A good lens should be comfortable for a few hours and have no after effects. If you have a problem with a lens, or you think you have a problem, get yourself checked out immediately, not doing anything will only make the problem worse and could pose a risk to your health.