5 Signs It’s Time To Replace Your Contact Lenses

There’s also proper hygiene when it comes to contact lenses. Maintaining a pair of contact lenses is as challenging as your very first time of putting it on. Contact lenses have expiration dates. You have to follow this lifespan, or else it might cause serious problems to your eyes. It can range from simple eye itchiness or irritation up to serious ones like eye diseases, infections, and dry eyes.

According to a study by the Centre for Contact Lens Research at the University of Waterloo, 40% of people who wear contact lenses don’t replace their pair beyond the replacement schedule. Moreover, some of them don’t even know that their contact lenses have an expiration date.
As a contact lens wearer, you must be extra vigilant when using contact lenses. Based on the same research, even eye professionals give out wrong information about the prescribed expiration dates of the contact lenses.
In line with that, 52% of the people who wear a two-week replacement silicone hydrogel lens wear it beyond the prescribed time. Contact lenses get exposed to your eyes’ fluids, so naturally, the materials of contact lenses deteriorate over time. As a result, your eyes are prone to risks if you don’t change your contact lenses regularly.
Eye complications such as dry eyes where your cornea loses sensation can happen to you. Eye infections can also start happening, and this causes keratitis or the infection of the cornea. Lastly, the usage of contact lenses beyond the prescription date can lead to corneal ulcers. These are open sores on the outer layer of your cornea wherein you feel a burning and painful sensation.
It’s easy to sustain proper hygiene when it comes to your contact lenses. Below are some telltale signs you shouldn’t ignore:1. Cloudy lenses
Make sure to examine your lenses on a regular basis. If it’s not as clear as the first time you bought it, then your lenses might have bacteria already.
To check if you have cloudy lenses, take them out of your eyes and rinse it with the saline solution. Put them back on to check if it’s time to say goodbye to this pair.

2. The feeling of discomfort and irritation

If you’re experiencing something unusual with your contact lenses, then there’s something wrong. It’s natural for contact lenses to stick dirt and dust, so never forget to clean it with the solution.
Don’t forget to look for scratches as well, as any damage to the lenses already tells you to change them.

3. Permanent dents or bends on the contact lenses

Damaged contact lenses in any shape or form are a portal to the bacteria to pass through. Instead of protecting your eyes, it only allows unwanted substances or material at your cornea and other eye parts.

4. No UV protection

Older brands of contact lenses don’t have UV protection. If you’ve had that pair for a fairly long time, then most probably, your lenses are not protecting your eyes from UV.
Moreover, your eyes may not be getting enough oxygen because of the material of old contact lenses. Newer ones have been adjusted and modified to allow the cornea to breathe and protect the eyes from sun damage. If not prevented, your eyes can suffer from cataracts, macular degeneration, and corneal diseases.

5. Reaching prescription expiration date

Before getting a pair of contact lenses, you should go to an eye specialist to know the right type of contact lenses for you. There are different prescription expiration dates for different types of contact lenses:
• Daily disposable lenses should be discarded after you wear it for a single day.
• Disposable lenses are to be replaced every two weeks.
• Frequent replacement lenses prescribed lifespan is either until every month or every quarter.
• Traditional (reusable) lenses should be changed every six months or longer.
Before you reach the expiration date of your contact lenses, get a new one already. Ultimately, follow what’s prescribed to you.
If you’ve ticked one or a few from the checklist, then it’s time that you replace your contact lenses immediately. At the end of the day, you should make your utmost effort to keep your pair of contact lenses at its optimum shape.
Also, take note of the different types of lenses and their solutions and the materials that were used in making them. You might be allergic or irritated to some of these materials, so it’s best to consult a professional first.

How To Select The Right Contact Lens

Contact lens wearers, consider your options. There are extended-wear contacts, disposables, and even lenses that can change your eye color. But as with any purchase of a medical device, buying contact lenses should be done with care and caution. These tips will help you choose the right type of contact lens for your needs.
 

Contact Lens Options

Your first step is to choose from two basic types of lenses: soft and hard. “Most people who wear contact lenses wear soft lenses — 9 of 10 people,” says Thomas L. Steinemann, MD, associate professor of ophthalmology at Case Western University and a spokesperson for the American Academy of Ophthalmology. “The rigid gas-permeable lenses are worn by only about 10 percent of people.” Hard lenses are usually the better choice for people who have astigmatism or a medical condition in which protein deposits form on the contact lens.

After you’ve chosen hard or soft lenses, there are many categories of contact lens available, both in terms of how they accomplish vision correction and how often they need to be replaced:

Daily wear contact lenses.

This type of contact lens is usually the least expensive option. Daily wear contact lenses have to be taken out and disinfected every night and are replaced on a set schedule. The replacement time can vary widely by type and brand, from every two weeks to every three months.
 

Extended wear contact lenses.

This type of contact lens is designed to be worn overnight, though they need to be removed at least once a week for cleaning and disinfection. However, many eye professionals do not encourage their use. “I recommend that people not wear contacts overnight, even if they are extended-wear lenses,” says Dr. Steinemann. When you sleep with your contact lenses in, you reduce the amount of oxygen to the eyes, making your eyes more vulnerable to infection — especially corneal infection.
 

 

Disposable contact lenses

Daily disposable lenses get tossed every day after use, so no maintenance is involved. They cost more because you need a new pair every day, but they are much more convenient. Disposables that are replaced weekly or monthly require the same regular care as daily wear lenses. Disposables are a good option for people with allergies or other conditions that exacerbate the formation of protein deposits from tear film.
 

Toric contact lenses

This type of lens is used to correct astigmatism, a condition in which vision is blurred because of an irregularly shaped cornea or lens inside the eye. They are usually more expensive than other contact lenses.
 

Colored contact lenses

Colored contacts can dramatically change the color of your eyes — making even the brownest eyes look blue or green, for instance — or enhance your natural color. They can be worn for purely cosmetic purposes or to also correct vision.
 

Multifocal contact lenses

People with presbyopia — a condition that occurs as people get older and their eyes have a harder time bringing close objects into focus — can sometimes have their vision corrected with bifocal or multifocal lenses. One technique, called monovision, uses a contact lens for distance in the dominant eye and a contact lens for near vision in the non-dominant eye. Modified monovision uses a bifocal or multifocal lens in the non-dominant eye. “It can be tricky for some people who can’t deal with blurriness or who have trouble filtering out visual distractions,” says Steinemann.
 

Buying Contacts? Follow These Safety Tips

When purchasing contact lenses, keep these tips in mind:

  • Don’t buy lenses out of broken box sets. Make sure the package is sealed properly.
  • Use caution when buying contacts on the Internet. Stay with reputable Web sites that will confirm your prescription with your eye doctor and that offer brand name products. When you receive your order, make sure the information on each contact lens box matches your prescription.
  • Be sure to use a current prescription from your eye care professional; prescriptions are only good for one year from the date they are written.

Even if you do not need vision correction, don’t buy cosmetic lenses without consulting an eye care professional. Theatrical contact lenses that are used for Halloween or other occasions are sold on the Internet, beauty salons, and even convenience stores. But even cosmetic lenses, like lenses used for vision correction, must be fitted by trained professionals and should be monitored with follow-up visits to prevent eye infections and other problems.
Contact lenses are an excellent way to correct vision. And by taking a few necessary precautions, you can determine the contact lens type that’s best suited for your needs.