4 Steps to Proper Contact Lens Care
Do you have patients who wear contact lenses? Do they use butter to clean them? Evidently some people do. According to a story on NPR, most contact lens wearers don’t take proper care of the lenses, which is problematic because it can lead to ulcers and infections–and even blindness. I myself am a contact lens wearer, and I learned a few things from this article about proper lens care, and I resolve to make sure I do these things from now on. Help prevent eye infections in your home care patients by making sure they follow these steps:
- Change the solution. Many people don’t remember to change the solution that their contacts soak in over night; instead, they simply add more solution. It is important to change the solution, as last night’s solution is already full of bacteria. Imagine it’s your kitchen sink. You wash your dishes in the sink and the water gets dirty. Would you let that water sit all day, and wash your dishes again in the same dirty water? No? Then don’t do the same thing with contact lenses.
- Let the case air dry. The case needs to dry out so that bacteria don’t grow in it. Get a new lens case every month.
- Use solution–not beer, not lemonade, not butter–to clean your lenses. Do I really need to explain this one? Make sure your home care patients know to only use solution to clean their contacts. Full stop.
- Don’t sleep in your lenses. Sleeping in your lenses increases the likelihood of infection. Don’t do it.
When you’re in the patient’s home, you will have the opportunity to see how the patient takes care of his or her lenses, and you will be able to intervene if you see problems. The bright side is that these problems are relatively easy to correct. Make sure your patients know that proper lens care can save them a lot of pain and money.
Finally, are you taking good care of your lenses? As a home care worker, you work long hours. Sometimes you get home after a long day and you want to go straight to bed–you’re too tired to take your contacts out. Even though proper care can seem time consuming (particularly when you’re exhausted), but proper lens care will save you pain and money in future as well.
