Saturday, August 27, 2011

Sleeping with Contact Lenses could invite blindness

Nowadays many different types of contact lenses are available in the market. Most of the people choose soft contact lenses compared to the spectacles. Users of the soft contact lenses must follow the manufacturer’s instructions. Any contact lens wearer, who use lenses for far longer than the recommend of manufacturer or left it overnight, can potentially invite infections and other problems of eyes. People who wear lenses while sleeping or wear lenses regularly are at high risk of a severe eye condition which can show the way to blindness. Today only a few brands of soft contact lenses allow the users to sleep with contact lenses. Orthokeratology lenses are the lenses that can be worn while sleeping.

Sleep with Contact Lenses could invite blindness
Cornea, the covering of the eyeball can erode by continuous use of contact lenses. By covering the cornea for extensive period, oxygen blocks out and provides an ideal propagation ground for harmful bacteria that invite infection and may lead to loss of vision. So do not sleep with contact lenses in your eyes even if you have lenses that are prescribed "Extended Wear" contacts. While you are sleeping, your eyes are closed so tears can’t carry healthy amount of oxygen to your eye like in the waking hours. Consequently your lenses will become waterless and stick to your eyes. If you accidentally forgot to remove your contact lenses before sleeping, then put eye drops in your eyes before removing the lenses.

The eye infection, microbial keratitis poorly affects non-lens wearers, about 1 person in 30,000. Nowadays, there is increase in the number of professionals and young people who have fallen victim to it and some of them become totally or partially blind in the affected eye. The bacteria Acanthamoeba and Pseudomonas are the most common keratitis-causing microbes, which breeds in unclean lens cases. A fluid, covering the eye which contains protective enzymes, protects the eye against the foreign bodies and prevents anything that is sticking to the surface of the eye. However waterborne microbes and slight air sometimes go through these defenses and penetrate in the defensive layer of cells on the cornea.

Contact lenses are the most common cause of corneal infections. Wearing lenses overnight, makes the eye less perceptive to discomfort and lowers sensation in the cornea. Symptoms of early infection may not be felt by Wearer; the pain may start after the infection takes clutch. Eye becomes red and howling with a discrete red rim around the iris. Person with infection is unable to read or watch the television as well as blurred vision and sensitivity to light and pain occurs. So every contact lenses wearer should avoid it while sleeping for safety from microbial infection.

According to research, nearly 300,000 soft lens wearers in Britain who wear lenses overnight, increase the chances of losing their sight up to 20-fold. And face 3 times more average risk of bacterial eye infection which can cause glaucoma and cataracts. A Dutch study found that rigid gas-permeable lenses wearers were 3 times less expected to get microbial keratitis than those who wore soft-lens.

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