DR. BOBS DAILY: FOUR EYES ARE BETTER THAN NONE A new report from the CDC states that 1 million eye infections due to improper contact lens hygiene occur each year in the U.S. Wearing lenses overnight, failing to change the storage case at proper intervals, and failing to follow proper hygiene when storing the lenses are listed as risk factors for infection. Besides bacterial infections, two other likely infections are from Fusarium (a fungus) and Acanthamoeba (dude, thats an amoeba! Imagine an amoeba in your eye!). Partial or total loss of vision can occur, although this is uncommon. The report doesnt state how many of the 1 million yearly doctor visits for such infections result in visual compromise. At the bottom of the link below are CDC guidelines on proper contact lens care. When my vision first started to go in high school, I went straight to contacts. Wore them for several years. But in medical school I felt like my eyes were getting tired all the time. So, I switched to glasses (remember how BIG glasses were back then? My med school graduation picture is hilarious). I went back to contacts on and off over the next decade, but about ten years ago I went back to glasses and havent worn contacts since. The one thing I hate about glasses is the green tarnish goop that builds up on the nose pads. This has necessitated that I stick to wearing only glasses in which the plastic frame rests directly on the nose, without the nose pads. Problem is, these glasses are dorky. The really cool people in the pictures at the optometrists office are always wearing metal-rimmed glasses with nose pads. Oh well. Ill take dorky over eye amoebas any day! Dr. Bob
Posted on: Fri, 14 Nov 2014 17:59:44 +0000