Only Solution For Your Contacts!
A study performed by Bausch & Lomb in August revealed that an alarming number of people are using strange chemicals rather than contact solution to keep their lenses moist. Products including baby oil, beer, coke, Vaseline, lemonade, fruit juice, butter as well as others were all mentioned as occasional substitutes, by twenty percent of the two thousand adults polled in the United Kingdom.
Even more of the respondants indicated that they use saliva when putting lenses in their eyes. Since we know that the average adult mouth contains 500 to 650 different types of microorganisms, this is clearly not a good idea. Moreover, an alarming number of individuals assume that water from a tap or bottle is a suitable alternative for lens solution, however even those may contain microorganisms that can cause eye damage and have been linked to Acanthamoeba keratitis, a sight-threatening infection. Even moreso, if you get water in your eyes when swimming or bathing while wearing your lenses, it's recommended to remove your lenses as soon as you can and disinfect them to rinse off any parasites that may have adhered to them.
The only thing that you should use to rinse, sterilize, moisten or soak your lenses is proper contact solution. Never store your lenses in water! Keeping your lenses in water isn't effective in sterilizing them and dangerous bacteria can gather on your lenses almost instantly and eventually enter your eyes. Additionally, contact solution is made to compliment the acidity of your tears and water on the other hand can cause discomfort or blurred vision since your lenses may stick or lose their shape.
When necessary storage or cleansing is difficult for you, try to use daily disposable contacts as opposed to lenses that you reuse. You should always take age, daily routine and level of maturity into consideration when determining which contacts are most suitable for the members of your family.
Only those who are capable of understanding the proper way to care for contacts and how important this is should use contacts, especially reusable brands. Failure to do so can result in permanent damage to the eyes, vision loss and even total blindness!