22/10/2026
As a contact lens wearer for over 10 years, our new patient Jo asked us to post this information far and wide as she had never known…NO SWIMMING IN CONTACT LENSES!
Your eyes have an incredibly advanced way of staying free of infection. The tear film refreshes constantly with every blink to guard against potential invaders. The surface of the eye, your first and main lens, the cornea, is naturally hydrophobic and slippery so germs can’t easily bind. So hygiene is of the UTMOST importance when you decide to insert a gel matrix into your eye for hours. Contact lenses allow germs to remain on the eye going against our very evolutionary system. When you ensure clean practices, this is mostly safe. Swimming in water with contact lenses, is not.
Jo felt first hand the effects of an eye infection. Intense pain and sensitivity to light for hours. When she saw us, we instigated aggressive treatment. Because the infection was right in the centre of that first lens. And if that infection took hold, she could have lost her sight in that eye.
We love fitting contact lenses. There is so much freedom you can experience and your vision can be even better than glasses in some circumstances. But please please please be careful when you are wearing contact lenses. And come see us for the right advice.
