Before Your eyes go bad

People choose to wear contact lenses for many reasons. Aesthetics and cosmetics are often the motivating factors for people who would like to avoid wearing glasses or would like to change the appearance of their eyes.

While some people wear contacts lenses for more visual reasons, others wear them just for fashion. Many Nigerian men and women put on these things without knowing the side effects and most young ladies wear the lenses for fashion sake because it gives them a more different look.

Long-term contact lens use can lead to alterations in corneal thickness, stromal thickness, curvature, corneal sensitivity, cell density, and epithelial oxygen uptake, etc. Other changes may include the formation of epithelial vacuoles and microcysts (containing cellular debris) as well as the emergence of polymegathism in the corneal endothelium.

Decreased corneal sensitivity, vision loss, and photophobia have also been observed in patients who have worn contact lens for an extended period of time. Many contact lens-induced changes in corneal structure are reversible if contact lenses are removed for an extended period of time.

Nigeriafilms.com spoke with a student, Destiny Ehimae Ebunuwele, she said, “yes, I wear them all the time. But I take them out before I go to sleep and put the lenses back in the case with the solution or it will become dry and prone to breaking.”

She further said that, “every morning, after putting your contacts on, pour out your old solutions. Please do not reuse. Make sure you wash your hands before putting them on and try not to let your contacts or solutions get in contact with water. There are organisms in water that can cause an eye infection, so in other words, make sure your hands are completely dry when putting them on.

“You might want to invest in some eye drops for contact lenses because there are times during the day when the lenses will be too dry or it may have some dirt on them and eyedrops can be an efficient way to clean the contacts and get some moisture rather than taking the contacts out cleaning it which can be a hassle sometimes.”