4 Things No One Tells You About Wearing Contact Lenses
Contact lenses offer an attractive alternative to glasses, and if you're finally making the switch, you're probably pretty excited. Your eye doctor has probably armed you well with bottles of solution and instructions for cleaning, removing and inserting your lenses. Still, there are things that are bound to happen to you as you adjust to your lenses that you may find surprising or strange. Read on to ensure you know what to expect.
Your contacts might feel a bit uncomfortable and itchy in the beginning.
Wearing contacts dries your eyes out. It takes your eyes a while to get used to the contacts and start making more tears to compensate. During the first few weeks that you wear your lenses, you might find that your eyes feel tired or itchy after a few hours. This is normal. If it bothers you enough, you can remove your contacts mid-day and switch to glasses. As your eyes adjust, you can begin wearing your contacts all day. If it has been more than a few weeks and your eyes still feel weird when wearing contacts, talk to your eye doctor. You may need a different prescription or brand of lenses.
You'll get used to touching your eyes, and your friends will think it is strange.
When you first start wearing contacts, you'll likely feel awkward and apprehensive about touching your eyeballs. This awkwardness wears off over time, and eventually, you'll be able to stick your finger in your eye without even thinking about it. Your non-contact-wearing friends will be amazed at your ability to remove eyelashes from your eyes and put your contacts in without flinching. Just make sure you always wash your hands before touching your eyes to prevent infection.
The first time you wake up realizing your forgot to take your contact out before bed will be scary.
Some contacts are meant to be slept in, but most are not. If you forget to take yours out for the night, they will probably feel like they're stuck to your eyes in the morning. This is because your contacts have dried out your eye as you slept. Rest assured, they're not really stuck. Apply some contact solution of moistening eye drops to your eyes, and blink a few times. The contacts will loosen up, and you can remove them comfortably.
No, you can't lose a contact behind your eye.
Most every contact wearer "loses" a contact in his or her eye at some point. This can be a traumatic experience because it seems like the contact has somehow slipped around your eyeball and is lost behind your eye. Rest assured, this is not possible. There is nowhere "behind your eye" for the contact to go. It's just hiding under your eyelid. If you relax, close your eyes, and gently massage your eyelid with your finger, it will work its way back to the front of your eye, where you can remove it easily.
Switching from glasses to contacts is exciting. It gives you the chance to look like yourself again, without an extra accessory on your face. If you're not sure whether something you experience when switching to contacts is normal, don't hesitate to contact an eye doctor like Bass River Optometrics.
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