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Quick, your contact lens is uncomfortable and needs to be cleaned immediately, but you have no contact lens solution, what would you use?

Baby oil, beer, Coke, petroleum jelly, lemonade, fruit juice or butter?  Although we are big fans of Deschutes Brewery’s Black Butte Porter last we checked this is not approved for use on contacts.  How about the old stand-bys –  tap water or saliva?  Okay maybe a Mirror Pond Pale Ale wouldn’t be too bad . . . .  just kidding!

Unbelievably, a recent study in the U.K. of 2,000 adults found that 20 percent of the respondents reported occasionally using baby oil, beer, fruit juice, tap water or saliva instead of a contact lens solution.

One of the major reasons contact lens wearers have problems with the comfort or sight with their contacts and return earlier than the recommended yearly corneal health and contact lens check is due to using an inappropriate solution with their contacts.  Not all contact lens solutions are the same and the brand “on sale” may not be compatible for your newer soft lenses.

But worse than using an inappropriate solution with your contacts is that contact lens wearers still use saliva or tap water as a solution when putting lenses in their eyes. While we continue to remind our patients that the average adult mouth contains 500 to 650 different types of bacteria. In addition tap and distilled water may contain micro-organisms that can cause major damage to the eye.

As always, if you have questions or concerns about your contacts, vision or eye health remember the eyecare professional at Integrated Eyecare  - enhancing the quality of your vision today, while protecting the health of your eyes for tomorrow.