The incredible importance of teaching teens to care for their contact lenses.
Did you know that 45% of the 3.6 million teens who currently wear contact lenses don’t replace them as prescribed? The CDC found that an astounding 85% of contact lens-wearing teens have at least one bad habit that puts them in danger of eye infection.
True confessions:
41% of teens don’t visit an eye doctor once a year
27% admit that they go swimming in their contact lenses
30% sleep at night or nap during the day in them
41% don’t routinely replace their contact lens cases
Only 4.2% of teens have ever reported a ‘red or painful’ eye that required a visit to the eye doctor to their own family eye doctor!
POTENTIAL PROBLEMS
RISKS
Not replacing contact lenses and/or their storage cases as recommended increases the risk for contact lens-related eye infections…especially the opportunity to introduce microorganisms, partly because the moist surfaces of the lens and case provide an environment favorable to microbial growth.
INFECTIONS
In the last 3 years there have been outbreaks of Acanthamoeba keratitis and Fusarium keratitis. This is what has raised the importance of contact lens care and wear.
7 TIPS FOR TEENS
- Replace your contact lens case regularly
- Visit your eye doctor yearly.
- Buy contact lenses from a trusted source.
- Don’t sleep or nap in them.
- Don’t swim or shower while wearing contacts.
- Never, ever share contact lenses with anyone.
- Don’t clean or rinse them in tap water.