Contact lenses

Contact Lens Health Week

August 22-26 2016

#OnePairTakeCare

The CDC (Center for Diseases Control and Prevention) is responsible for organizing this Awareness Week, Contact Lens Health Week. The reason is to increase the public's awareness of how to maintain a healthy contact lens wear and care strategy.

There are 3 main basic habits for all contact lens wearers (soft or hard- rigid gas permeable-RPG).

1. Wash your hands with soap and water. Dry your hands. Water and contact lenses don’t mix.

2. Do not sleep in your contact lenses unless prescribed by your eye doctor.

3. Keep water away from our contact lenses. Avoid showering in contact lenses. Also remove them before using a hot tub or swimming.

How to take care of your contact lens:

1. Use contact lens disinfecting solution to clean your lens each time you remove them. Gently rub and rinse them. Never use water or saliva.

2. Store them in solution made for contact lenses, not water.

3. Replace lenses as recommended by your eye doctor.

4. Rinse your contact lens case with contact lens solution. Dump out the solution and dry with a clean cloth or air dry. Leave the lids of the containers while not storing the lenses.

5. Replace your lens case often or every 3 months or as recommended by your eye doctor.

For the "whys" of the above statements from the CDC please visit http://www.cdc.gov/contactlenses/show-me-the-science.html#habits

The CDC has some nice, downloadable poster to support healthy habits.

http://www.cdc.gov/contactlenses/

The CDC also has a nice home page about Contact Lens week.

http://www.cdc.gov/contactlenses/contact-lens-health-week.html