Do you wear contact lenses and ever asked yourself a few questions your were scared to ask you optometrist? Let me get a few for you out of the way.
1. If u misplace your contacts, they can disappear behind your eyes to your brain!
Nope, not even possible. If u just look at the anatomy, you can see that the eyeball is attached to a sort of conjunctival sack (connective tissue). So, that means that there is a tissue that separates the front part of the eyeball and the back side of the eye. When you lose a lens, it may fall out or it’s stuck in the conjunctival sack. Big chance you’ll blink the lens out on your own or your optometrist can get it out in a minute.
2. By buying your lenses in a lower prescription you need, you can train your eyes.
Nope, as the matter a fact. This can have a negative effect on your prescription. Like literally…. You’ll become more myopic in some cases (a more negative prescription).
3. I don’t need spare pair of glasses.....
Yes, you do :D
4. Since I know my prescription I can order online or buy random lenses on my prescription.
No! When you are buying lenses somewhere else then where you got them measured, there are a few more things to thing about then just your prescription. And the most important thing is the type of material. As they all seem to look the same, there is a big difference in materials. And by buying a wrong type of material and wearing them long term u can seriously damage your eyes. Beside the material it, is important to always choose the right type of radius, diameter and contact lens solution. And always keep in mind that there's almost always difference in prescription between your contact lenses and glasses.
(When you are deciding to order your lenses online I would highly recommend getting your eyes checked for prescription and corneal surface by an optometrist every year at least)
5. Maybe the whole hygiene protocol is a bit overrated?
This is something a lot of the contact lens wearers think. For those of you who sometimes skip a few steps in taking care of their contact lenses, it’s not the question ‘are’ you getting an infection, but just when…. Nature took care of itself and made sure your eye has its own way of protecting it from bacteria. One of these ways is by a surface that is called the corneal epithelium. This is the most outer part of the cornea. But in case of a severe dry eye or the smallest scratch in the epithelium, it can create an open window for any kind of bacteria nearby. One type of a bacterial infection will give u an itchy eye for a day or two and another type of bacterial infection eats through the cornea within a few days. Scared yet? Not what I intended to do. Just keeping it real.
Interested in a deeper explanation about one of the above subjects. Feel free to ask!
Source: An Optometrist in the making who pays attention in class. The Netherlands, Kelly Koladczuk