Myths About Contact Lenses DEBUNKED!

Having spent over a decade working in a high street opticians, I’ve heard many myths about contact lenses. Before I qualified as a dispensing optician, I worked as the contact lens supervisor, showing how people how to use their lenses and acting as a general problem solver.

Over time, people would come in and ask about crazy myths about contact lenses they had heard from friends and family. They’d want reassurance that these weird and wonderful things could never happen to them. Thankfully, almost all of those incredible things you hear are just that: incredible. They’re often heavily embellished half-truths, or just straight-up fantasy.

I’m going to take a look at the most common myths about contact lenses and let you know what’s true, and what’s false.

Myths About Contact Lenses – DEBUNKED!

The myth: Contact lenses can get lost round the back of your eye.

The verdict: FALSE!

Your eye socket works like a closed capsule. Your lids create two little flaps at the top and bottom of your eyes but they stop where your bone starts. Nothing can get round to the back of your eye, so when you hear a story about a friend of a friend losing a contact lens round the back of their eye, you can rest assured that they probably blinked it out while they were searching for it!

The myth: Contact lenses can help improve allergies like hay-fever.

The verdict: TRUE!

Some studies suggest that contact lenses act as a barrier to any microscopic nasties in the air that you might be allergic to. People who suffered from hay-fever caused by pollen reported noticing that their eyes watered less on days they wore their lenses. A surprising (and completely unintended) positive for contact lens wearers.

The myth: You can’t sleep in contact lenses.

The verdict: FALSE! (To some extent)

You definitely can’t sleep in daily lenses, or regular monthly lenses, but there are lenses on the market that are designed to be slept in. Usually they need replacing two-weekly, or monthly and you would need more frequent check-ups, but if your lifestyle means you don’t have much time to spare inserting and removing lenses, you can ask your optician to fit you with extended wear lenses. (A quick word of warning: only sleep in lenses that have been designed for that purpose, sleeping in the wrong type of lens can be very uncomfortable and cause eye health problems.)

The myth: You can lose a contact lens in your eye.

The verdict: FALSE!

Just like the point above, you can’t lose a lens in your eye because there’s nowhere for it to go. A soft disposable lens can fold in half occasionally if you’re having trouble inserting it, but if it does and ends up under your lid you definitely won’t lose it. Your eye is designed to push any foreign bodies to the corner of your eye near your nose. So if you get a bit flustered in the early days of wearing contact lenses, just gently massage your lid and your lens will slide out with ease. There is absolutely no way you can lose a lens in your eye.

The myth: You can’t wear lenses if you have astigmatism or a high prescription.

The verdict: FALSE!

The development of contact lenses is advancing all of the time. High prescriptions that would have previously been ruled out for contact lens wear are now being catered for, even a prescription of -10.00D isn’t as much of a big deal as it used to be. For those people who suffer from astigmatism, toric contact lenses are available, some even correct astigmatism up to a -3.75D! If your prescription has put you off wearing lenses in the past, now is the time to go for it. There’s nothing holding you back!

The myth: You can’t rinse your lenses in tap water.

The verdict: TRUE!

Any liquid that has been designed to rinse or clean your lenses with, has been sterilised and treated to make it safe for contact lens wearers. Water straight out of the tap (or in the swimming pool, or shower etc) has not been treated and contains acanthamoeba bacteria, which can very quickly cause a nasty infection in soft contact lens wearers which could cost them their sight! This is why contact lens wears are advised not to swim, shower or bathe in their lenses.

Now you know a little bit more about contact lenses and any misconceptions you had should have been quashed, why not check out Feel Good Contact Lenses’ eyecare hub for more information on eyecare?

While you’re at it have 10% off your first order too. Use the code: FEELGOODTIME.

 

 

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