It’s summertime and the weather has been scorching hot. It’s the perfect time to head down to the shore, go to a water park, or find a local swimming pool to cool down.
If you are one of the 150 million Americans who have a refractive error (you are farsighted, near sighted, or have an astigmatism), you have made a decision not to wear your glasses in the water and begin to debate wearing contact lenses instead. But you stop yourself as you remember your eye doctor warning you against wearing contact lenses in the water. Here’s why.
Water contains a whole slew of organisms or chemicals that can irritate the eyes. Most bodies of water are not completely germ-free and can possibly result in an eye infection or corneal ulcer. An ameba in particular called Acanthamoeba causes an infection that can result in blindness or a corneal transplant.
Contact lenses act as a Petri dish. It provides a moist enclosement to keep things on the eye that should normally flush out. As a result, the CDC and FDA both recommend contact lenses be taken out when entering any water.
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