Risk of permanent blindness due to wearing cosmetic contact lenses

After wearing contact lenses for a while, the 20-year-old girl felt her eyes gradually become blurred. The doctor discovered that both eyes had corneal ulcers due to parasitic infection.

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Contact lenses are currently especially popular with many young people because they help make their eyes bigger and change their eye color.

However, Dr. Pham Ngoc Dong, Head of the Cornea Department, Central Eye Hospital, warned that overusing contact lenses will lead to many consequences.

Recently, the department received a female patient, Đ.TTT (20 years old, Dak Lak), who came to the clinic with severe corneal ulcers in both eyes. Test results showed that the eyes were infected with the parasite Acanthameoba.

The risk of corneal amoeba infection in people who wear contact lenses is many times greater than in people who do not wear them.

T. said that he is not nearsighted, and that he likes to wear contact lenses for beauty, so he went to an optical store to buy them. Every time he goes out or has an important occasion, T. usually wears them continuously for 5-8 hours.

Normally, before wearing glasses, T. washes her hands, applies medicine, and cleans her glasses, but the last time she was wearing glasses, dust got into her eyes. Thinking it was okay, she didn't take them off.

After a few days, T. suddenly felt his vision getting blurry. He went to the pharmacy to buy eye drops but they didn't help. After 3 days of home treatment with no improvement, T. went to the hospital for a check-up.

Dr. Dong said that anyone can get corneal amoeba, but the risk for people who wear contact lenses is many times higher than for those who do not wear this type of lens.

The parasite Acanthamoeba is a potential enemy of all contact lens wearers. This tiny single-celled parasite is commonly found in tap water, dust and swimming pools.

They can fatten themselves by feeding on bacteria that live in contaminated contact lenses.

When infected contact lenses are placed in the eye, Acanthamoeba begins to eat away at the cornea, the outer layer of the eyeball, and multiply.

The consequences of this bacterial attack will be symptoms of itchy, burning eyes, watery eyes, blurred vision, sensitivity to light, swollen eyelids and eye pain.

Can be blind

Dr. Dong said that eyes are very sensitive, so if you overuse contact lenses, especially those of unknown origin, of poor quality, and if you do not clean or wear them properly, in mild cases you will experience swelling, allergies, and conjunctivitis.

Wearing for a long time will cause the eyes to lack oxygen, leading to dry eyes, eye pain, more seriously will cause corneal ulcers, reduced vision, light sensitivity, even blindness.

Contact lenses also reduce sensation in the cornea, easily causing corneal ulcers if worn regularly.

With colored contact lenses will reduce the wearer's vision, causing eye pain and fatigue.

It is worth noting that the surface of contact lenses contains many bacteria. When wearing lenses in the eyes, bacteria will enter, leading to infection.

Not to mention, if lens cleaning solution and lens soaking box are not used properly, they can also be a source of infection and a bridge for parasites to attack the eyes.

Therefore, if you see symptoms including eye pain, redness, light sensitivity and blurred vision, you should immediately go to an ophthalmology facility for timely diagnosis and treatment.

When wearing glasses, wash your hands, use eye drops to keep your eyes from drying out, use quality glasses and lens cleaning solution, and wear glasses before applying makeup and remove them before removing makeup.

When going out in the rain, swimming, or sleeping, you need to remove your contact lenses. Never wear them when your eyes are infected.

According to VNN