Are there contraindications to wearing contact lenses?

It is estimated that about 5-7% of the population are people who are unable to wear contact lenses. We can talk about lens intolerance when, after wearing the lenses, you feel violent contraction of the eyelids, there is excessive tearing, burning, pinching of the eye and blood vessels dilate and are visible in the form of red veins on the eyeball.

Even if you remove the lens and reapply, the discomfort will recur. Sometimes choosing more hydrated silicone hydrogel lenses helps, but if your eyes react so violently to all lenses, you’re dealing with an intolerance.

Besides intolerance, what are other contraindications to wearing contact lenses?

• Allergy. This includes both allergy to contact lens materials and storage solutions, as well as allergy to dust mites or dust. If you are allergic to lens care solutions, you can choose daily disposable lenses and thus dispense with the use of solutions. Allergies to mites or dust are not seasonal, making it difficult for the eyes to tolerate lenses year-round. The situation is slightly different for seasonal allergies, such as pollen. People who are allergic to pollen from grasses, trees and other plants can reach for contact lenses (in consultation with an eye doctor). However, during the pollen season of a particular group of plants, they must take special precautions: moisten their eyes more often and rinse out the allergens, use special anti-allergy drops for lens wearers (you don’t have to take them off to drop your eye) and use daily disposable lenses instead of bi-weekly or monthly lenses.
• Dry eye syndrome (DS) in its severe form. In a healthy eye, the contact lens floats on the tear film over the cornea and iris. If in the course of Dry Eye Syndrome the tear film is interrupted and the eye produces too few tears, the lens sticks to the surface of the eye and simply irritates it. With fresh lenses, just taken out of the package, the discomfort may be of minor intensity, but with each passing day, as the lenses become less and less hydrated and begin to draw moisture just from the tear fluid and, in addition, protein deposits begin to coat them, it will increase. If, in addition, some microcracks, invisible to the naked eye, appear on the lenses, the discomfort will be really big. One solution is to wear daily disposable lenses, but even they – once the dry eye syndrome caused by two-week or 24-hour lenses appears – will not be as comfortable to wear as they should be.
• Reduced immunity. People with congenital and acquired immune-related diseases are more prone to eye infections than others – the lenses are a kind of “gateway” for viruses and bacteria. For these people, even strict adherence to hygiene rules may not be enough. This is because bacteria, pathogenic fungi and protein deposits accumulate on the surface of the lens.
• Severe endocrine disorders. Hormonal disorders often induce dryness of the mucous membranes, including dryness of the eyeballs, resulting in discomfort after lens insertion and a foreign body sensation in the eye. This is the case, for example, with thyroid diseases.
• Diabetes. One of the side effects of diabetes is a predisposition to infections, which is why doctors advise diabetics against wearing contact lenses (due to the increased risk of serious infections and complications).
• Age. Many ophthalmologists refuse to examine children for contact lens wear, not because of any anatomical conditions, but because lenses recommended only after the child is able to take care of their daily care of maintaining proper hygiene on their own. A similar argument is raised for the elderly or those with limited mobility.
• Lifestyle and work environment. For example, people who work in a dusty environment or stay in very dry rooms, such as intensive air conditioning (due to the increased risk of infection and the development of dry eye syndrome, caused by dryness of the mucous membranes) should refrain from wearing lenses.

It is worth knowing that modern highly hydrated contact lenses also come in a dressing version: you can wear them on a diseased cornea, after injuries and surgeries.

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