Swimming in Contacts: A Risky Decision
Contact lens wearers know the logistical challenges that can come with situations like travel or spending a night out. Another area where contacts can complicate things? Swimming.
Experts say you shouldn’t swim with your contacts in your eyes, but should people with poor vision be forced to navigate the pool, lake or ocean unable to see or to splash around in their glasses? Just how bad is swimming in your contact lenses? Huffington Post asked eye health experts to break down the risks involved and what you should do instead.
What happens if you swim in your contacts?
“It is bad to swim in your contacts,” Dr. James Kelly, an ophthalmologist and founder of Kelly Vision, told HuffPost. “Water – whether from a pool, ocean, lake or hot tub – contains bacteria, fungi and parasites that can get trapped under your contact lenses, increasing the risk of serious eye infections. The most concerning is Acanthamoeba keratitis, a rare but potentially vision-threatening infection that can cause severe pain, corneal ulcers and even blindness.”
Bacteria like Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Serratia marcescens are other sources of swimming-related infections, as are adenoviruses.
“A contact lens acts like a ‘sponge’ soaking up these organisms and chemicals and keeping them on the surface of the eye for as long as the contact lens is worn,” explained Dr. Thomas J. Stokkermans, an optometrist and medical writer and reviewer at All About Vision. “Contact lenses and contact lens cleaners can cause small erosions on the surface of the eye that allow microorganisms to penetrate the surface of the eye more easily.”
As you swim (or shower), these microorganisms can attach to your contact lens.
“They can then infect the cornea ― the clear membrane on the front portion of the eye ― and cause an ulcer, a serious infection of the eye that can lead to a scar or can even perforate the eyeball,” Stokkermans said.
Without prompt treatment, you might also experience permanent vision loss.
It’s bad enough to consider developing a painful infection that might blind you, but what makes a situation like Acanthamoeba keratitis even worse is how difficult it can be to diagnose and treat.
“Sometimes in the early stages, it can look like many other things, which makes diagnosis hard, so patients usually present to us when it’s very, very late stage after they’ve gone through multiple providers,” said Dr. Masako Chen, an ophthalmologist at New York Eye & Ear Infirmary of Mount Sinai. “You have to find the cornea specialist who is familiar with this, which can be challenging even in major cities and much harder in rural areas.”
If the infection has gotten really bad, she noted they might have to do a corneal transplant to replace the whole cornea, then other follow-up surgeries afterwards.
“Acanthamoeba treatment is also very difficult because there are a couple of medications that are available, but they’re not common so can be difficult to come by sometimes,” Chen added. “You might have to go to a compounding pharmacy and pay out-of-pocket for medications. There are also medications that cornea specialists agree that patients should be on, but they’re not available in the U.S. So sometimes they have to go to Europe to obtain it or hopefully have a friend there who can help you.”
In addition to these logistical challenges, experts and patients have said that Acanthamoeba keratitis is one of the most painful eye conditions you can experience.
“I’m sure there are people out there who say, ‘Well I swim in contacts, and it’s totally fine,’” Chen said. “But I think those people were just lucky. I know from what I’ve seen that it’s just not a good idea and not worth the risk.”
There are other concerns besides infections
“Water can cause soft contact lenses to swell and change shape ― which may cause the lenses to stick on the eye and cause corneal abrasions and irritation,” said Dr. Ella Faktorovich, an eye doctor and founder of Pacific Vision Institute.
Basically, contact lenses sit on the tear film, which is the protective layer of clear fluid (or tears) that covers the surface of the eye. The tear film has a particular salt concentration or osmolarity, so exposing contact lenses to water
