Pink Eye!

Recently, one of my good friends came down with Pink Eye.  When most people think of Pink Eye, they think of young children at school, spreading this contagious disease to one another as they don’t wash their hands often enough.  The reality is that adults can contract this as well and some of the most likely adult candidates are contact lens wearers.

Why are contact lens wearers more vulnerable to pink eye and what was likely the primary cause of my friend getting pink eye?  Poor hygiene in the handling of contact lenses and contact lens cases can contribute mightily to infections of this sort.  My friend has a very bad habit of not changing or cleaning her premium contact lenses for months at a time.

So, when she went to get an eye examination with one of our Indianapolis eye doctors, she was told to throw away her contacts, replace her contact lens case and wear her eyeglasses for a few days to help alleviate the symptoms.  The problem was that when she put her glasses on, they had a 3 year old prescription in them that was off substantially and her vision was impaired.  Since she wears contact lenses all the time, she saw very little need to have an updated pair of glasses.  Needless to say, she came back in to one of our Indianapolis locations and ordered a new pair of glasses.

Two morals to this story: (1) contact lens wearers need to follow the guidelines of their wear schedule so as to have the best eye health and (2) even those patients who wear contacts 24/7 have a need to have a back-up pair of glasses.