14 Biggest Blunders to avoid while With Your Contact Lenses

If you’ve made this next mistake when it comes to your contacts, you’re not the only one. After all, keeping your contact lenses in their storage case right by your bathroom sink seems like a smart idea — especially since it’s important to wash your hands before handling contact lenses. However, keeping your contacts in the bathroom increases the chances of contamination.

As Sunshine Optometry explains on its website, bathrooms are usually humid. And when the humidity goes up, the possibility that microbes will start growing on your contact lenses increases. In addition, the American Ophthalmology Association cautions that every time you flush the toilet, a misty spray referred to as “toilet plume” is sent into the air and can potentially contaminate your contact lenses with pathogens (via Sunshine Optometry). For example, the bacteria that causes salmonella lives inside your intestines and can be in your waste products (via the Mayo Clinic). Plus, another potentially (but not always) dangerous bacteria, Escherichia coli or E. coli, is also inside your intestines (via Mayo Clinic).

To be fair, Sunshine Optometry states that it is possible storing your contact lenses in the bathroom won’t lead to contamination. However, if you want to be safe, they recommend keeping your lenses in a clean room where the humidity is low.

(3) Showering or swimming while wearing contacts

Imagine this: Your friend is getting ready to work out at the gym and asks if you think they can get away with wearing their contact lenses in the shower. They explain that removing their lenses and cleaning them can be a hassle. Unfortunately, what your friend doesn’t understand is that their lenses could come in contact with water.

As optometrist, Dr Danielle Richardson told Well+Good, “There can be microorganisms, bacteria, and chemicals in water that cause complications and infections.” Obviously, most swimming pools are treated with chemicals, but as the CDC explains, even water from the tap (and this includes shower water) can be dangerous for your eyes if it touches your contacts (via Well+Good). This is because water can contain a microorganism called Acanthamoeba. It’s not common, however, to develop an infection because Acanthamoeba gets in your eye. But when it does happen, you could experience blurry vision, sensitivity to light, and constant pain in your eye (via the American Optometric Association).

Besides not wearing your contacts in the shower, the American Optometric Association also advises removing your contacts before swimming in freshwater lakes and rivers. In addition, avoid wearing contacts in hot tubs and bathtubs.

(4) Wearing illegal colored cosmetic contacts