The Strange Reason Contact Lens Wearers May Get More Eye Infections
Bacteria abound in our eyes – and for contact lens wearers, those bacteria may be different from non-contact lens wearers. (Photo: Corbis/Tony Savino)
A new study may explain why contact lens-wearers seem more prone to certain eye infections.
According to researchers at NYU Langone Medical Center, people who wear contact lenses may have different bacteria in their eyes compared to non-lens wearers, thereby increasing their risk of infection. The findings were presented at the annual meeting of the American Society for Microbiology in New Orleans.
Researchers pinpointed a group of microorganisms in the eyes of contact lens users that are similar to the microorganisms found on the skin on the eyelid—something that was not found in the eyes of those who don’t wear contact lenses. And by using high-precision genetic tests, they discovered that lens wearers had three times the bacterial proportion on the surface of their eyes.
“We looked at people who wear contact lenses versus people who do not and we see there is a difference,” study co-investigator Lisa Park, MD, an eye physician and surgeon, tells Yahoo Health. “While we’ve known for a long time that people who wear contact lenses get different types of eye infections compared to other people who don’t wear contact lenses, nobody has studied this particular type of analysis — by closely looking at the ocular microbiome, the organisms that are colonizing the eyes of patients with contact lenses.”
By using our fingers to put contact lenses into our eyes ”perhaps we’re putting other bacteria on the surface of the eye that [don’t] normally reside there, increasing certain types of infection,” Park says. She adds that identifying the various bacteria in the eye can lead to improved treatments when infections do occur.
Related: 4 Unexpected Things Your Eyes Say About Your Health
Park is looking forward to conducting further research on a larger scale, honing in on the people who suffer from severe and chronic eye infections. “The other things we’re interested in are the other ocular conditions” where it might be useful to find more information on the host microbiome, she says. Then it’s possible to “tease out some relevant factors that may be contributing to being at risk for those conditions.”
Since contact lens wearers — a group that consists of more than 30 million people, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — are prone to eye infections, Park advises users to ditch those reusable clear disks. “I highly encourage everybody who wears contact lenses to move to a daily disposable,” she says.
Her second piece of advice is to take immediate action when it feels like something odd is lurking in or on your eyeballs. “Contact lens wearers are used to putting things in their eyes, so they’re used to feeling something in their eye,” she explains. “And oftentimes they tolerate symptoms that are early signs of infection or problem. So the minute you feel something is not right, take out the lenses. If it doesn’t get better quickly — which is within a day — you need to see somebody to make sure it’s not the first signs of infection.”
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