According to the World Health Organization, about a third of the world’s population by 2015 will have vision problems of varying degrees. Already now, approximately 35% of Europeans and almost 45% of Asian residents (mainly residents of technically highly developed Japan) wear either glasses or contact lenses. Contact lenses are undoubtedly a more convenient and aesthetic means for correcting vision. But many people wearing contact optics knowingly or unknowingly violate the rules for using contact lenses, thereby causing great harm to their health. It is about wearing planned replacement lenses. The fact is that each type of contact lens has its own service life: a day, a month, three months, six months or a year (there are other types of contact lenses). And often people think that changing contact lenses on time is just an optional recommendation, and they continue to wear them after the specified period. Ophthalmologists warn patients wearing contact lenses that changing contact lenses on time will avoid negative effects on the eyes.

Reasons for wearing lenses that have expired

Replacing contact lenses is ignored by people for two reasons: deliberately, when they see no reason to change lenses, which seem to continue to serve correctly, and unconsciously, when they simply forget that they started wearing lenses a long time ago and should be changed. If the second type of people is relatively easy to set on the right path, so that they change the means of contact correction in time, then the first type of people is very stubborn, since they do not realize what harm to the eyes is caused by contact lenses that have served their time. Often, in addition to the transfer of contact lenses in time, this is also added to the wrong care of soft lenses. For example, people often find it difficult to find the right lens care product on their own. The basic rule for using them is that long-term lenses should be placed after each wear in a container with a liquid that can clean the lenses from accumulated protein and tear residues.

Long Term Lens Care

Some lens solutions do not have this function as they are only needed to store or rinse the lenses. Therefore, when buying a liquid for lenses, you need to make sure that it is exactly cleaning. Also, long-term lenses require more thorough cleaning, which should be done twice a month. For this, there are special tablet preparations or enzyme solutions. Every month or every new pair of long-term wear lenses (meaning two weeks or more) should be placed in a new container, as it, as well as on the lenses, accumulates unprocessed protein residues and chemicals. This helps to keep the eyes in a healthier state.

The consequences of wearing damaged lenses

Replacement of contact lenses is necessary not only because harmful substances settle on them, but also because these substances provoke hydrophobization of the lenses and their uneven wetting, which leads to uneven wetting of the surface of the eyeball and instability of the tear film under the lens. Another reason why timely replacement of contact lenses is necessary is the appearance of microdamages on them, which distort visibility, cause irritation of the cornea and minor damage to the eyeballs themselves. Ophthalmologists are categorically against wearing damaged contact lenses by patients. In addition, prolonged wearing of the same lenses and storing them in the same container greatly increases the risk of getting and reproduction of pathogenic or opportunistic microorganisms on them that can infect the eyeball, causing a number of inflammatory or bacterial diseases such as conjunctivitis …

Which lenses are best to wear

All these reasons should make the patient think that he should not harm his own health by over-wearing contact lenses. Ophthalmologists say that short-term lenses, that is, one-day lenses, or lenses that can be worn for a week without taking off, and then discarded, are much less harmful to the eyes. When wearing such lenses, people quickly develop a reflex that in the evening before going to bed, the lenses need to be removed and discarded, and in the morning they should be put on new ones, and they do not overwhelm soft lenses, harming their health. Another advantage of such lenses is that you do not need to take care of them, that is, you do not need to buy solutions, containers, and if one of the lenses is lost or damaged, you just need to get out and put on the next one.