How to Manage Dry Eye Symptoms While Wearing Contacts

Dry eye is a condition that affects the ability of your tear film to lubricate your eye surface and nourish the structures. Contact lenses can cause or exacerbate dry eyes when you wear them. 

Because of this, many people with dry eyes consider contact lenses as eyewear they cannot use. However, you can use contact lenses even if you have dry eye; you only have to take a few steps to ensure better results. 

Contact Lens Hygiene

One of the leading causes of worsening dry eye in many people is poor lens care and hygiene. With a few improvements in these two facets, you will likely see changes and better comfort. Ensure to rub and rinse your contact lenses with contact lens solution to clean them each time they are removed.

Wash Your Hands

The need to wash hands before handling contacts may seem obvious, but it is not always done. Any time you handle your lenses, even if you are tired or it feels like an emergency, there is a chance that you will transfer the dirt to them. Accumulation of dirt particles on your lens can make them uncomfortable and may also cause eye infections if the dirt is rich with germs. 

Take Out Your Contacts When You Sleep

Sleeping in with your contacts exposes you to corneal eye infections. This is because contact lenses prevent the cornea from receiving the oxygen necessary for nourishment and the formation of tears. Extended-wear contact lenses are not ideal for people with dry eye syndrome. 

Renew Your Lenses According to the Prescriptions

Contact lenses usually have a timeline for when they are effective and safe to wear, usually until the time of renewal. Using your contacts beyond this point means that any debris accumulated over that time will irritate your eyes. It will also impact your tear film's ability to spread evenly across the eye surface, often causing dry eye. 

Change the Cleaning Solution

When you buy contact lenses, you have to buy the cleaning solution, too. Sometimes, that expense may seem unnecessary. But it is essential, and topping off the solution when you remove your lenses and put them back is a bad idea. 

The solution usually collects all the debris in your contacts, and topping it off does not eliminate it. You have to pour out the solution and fill it up afresh to ensure your lenses do not collect any debris.

Eye Care

Use Rewetting Eye Drops

Sometimes, lens hygiene is not enough to eliminate dry eye symptoms when using contact lenses. One way to help mitigate these symptoms is by using artificial tears even before your eyes start to feel dry. They work like sunscreen—as a preventive measure, not a curative one. 

While the clarity of vision with contacts is incredible, you must have a few hours during the day to take them out. This break will help your eyes breathe, rejuvenate, and take in larger amounts of oxygen. You could have a pair of eyeglasses during your break so you can still see clearly.

For more on managing dry eye symptoms while wearing contacts, visit Blue River Vision at our Silverthorne, Colorado office. Call (970)
451-0015​​​​​​​ to schedule an appointment today.