Beware of colored contact lenses. Doctors from the Rennes University Hospital receive many patients for serious eye infections. There are many reasons for this, but the consultations are partly caused by the wearing of unapproved colored lenses: they can be purchased freely on the internet, but do not always correspond to the minimum safety criteria required.
Contact lenses are the first cause of hospitalization in the ophthalmology department of the University Hospital of Rennes. Badly cleaned, badly used, unsuitable lenses or especially colored lenses bought on the internet: the causes are multiple but the consequence is the same: eye damage that can be permanent.
The doctors of this service alert on the phenomenon in an article of the Ouest-France regional newspaper.
Lenses worn without medical consultation
Each week, on average, these eye specialists hospitalize two patients for emergencies related to the wearing of unapproved contact lenses. A patient was admitted a few weeks ago with a very severe corneal infection. The cause ? She had worn hard colored contact lenses. They seriously damaged his cornea, and this in just a few hours. The cornea is the transparent membrane in front of the eye. Damaging this membrane is like scratching the lens of a camera! Today, the young woman has lost some of her visual abilities.
The problem with colored contact lenses is that they can be purchased very easily on the internet. However, it is necessary to have a medical opinion before wearing them, because not everyone can bear them. “They can be contraindicated if the eye does not produce enough tears or if the quality of the tears is not good”, explains Professor Frédéric Mouriaux, head of the department. Because in this case, the damage to the cornea, the transparent membrane at the front of the eye and through which we see, can be very serious.
Poor hygiene or misuse
But colored contact lenses aren’t the only ones that can cause serious damage. Misused “classic” contact lenses also bring many patients to the emergency room of this university hospital. Because they are placed directly on the cornea, a part of the eye which is very fragile. This is because there are no blood vessels in the cornea. All the necessary elements arrive by diffusion, a process much less efficient than blood circulation which makes the cornea less able to resist. The improper use of contact lenses can prevent the cornea from being properly oxygenated and properly healing.
Infections, ulcers, corneal abscess, the risks are multiple. To minimize them, you must clean your lenses well, do not wear them at night (unless medical advice to the contrary), do not wear a lens that has been damaged, never rinse them with tap or bottled water, and always seek the advice of an ophthalmologist.
A problem that does not only concern France. In Algeria, some patients have even lost their sight with counterfeit lenses bought on the internet!
90% of #lentils contacts sold in #Algeria are counterfeit and cause eye damage (specialist) – Maghreb Emergent https://t.co/g0TJOGgwbX via @maghrebemergent
— OL [MAG] (@OL_Magazine) March 30, 2018
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