Is swimming while wearing contact lenses safe? Strictly speaking, that’s a question best left to your doctor. Until then, we’ll go over the basics for you right here. After all, plenty of lens-wearers are just going to dive in anyway. Keeping that in mind, let’s take a look at the potential pitfalls of swimming while wearing contact lenses.
Dangers of Swimming While Wearing Contact Lenses
First things first, the greater medical community does not recommend swimming while wearing contact lenses. To begin with, the FDA recommends keeping your contact lenses far away from any moisture beyond cleaning solution. That absolutely goes double for both saltwater and chlorine.
Still, we recognize that lots of folks like to live dangerously and don’t always pay attention to best practices. Just realize that swimming with your contacts can lead to painful eye irritation, or even infection. For one thing, water can cause general irritation to your eyes. You see, soft lenses are porous, and can allow chemicals and bacteria to press directly up against your eyeball. This can cause redness, swelling and pain.
As we wrote about in our articles about public pools, a swimming pool can easily spread infections. In a way, water is a perfect incubator for many hazardous microbes and infectious viruses. It’s best to keep them out of contact with your naked eyes. Swimming while wearing contact lenses can allow certain microbes to become trapped behind the lens and infect your eye. Acanthamoeba, for example, can infect and inflame your cornea. Without treatment, it’s possible for Acanthamoeba to result in permanent eye damage.
Protection… Just in Case
Of course, as we said above, plenty of folks will swim with contact lenses on anyway. Now, if you’re going to ignore the advice, here are a few ways to at least minimize the damage to your eyes:
- Always wear goggles if you will be swimming with contact lenses. These should fit snuggly onto your head and prevent any excess water from reaching your eyes.
- Don’t thrash about in the water. The best advice for someone swimming while wearing contact lenses is to keep their water activities calm. The less splashing around, the less chance there will be to get water in your eyes.
- Shower safely. Finally, after you hop out of the water… you’re not done yet! You’ll want to shower after swimming in order to clean off the chlorine or salt. Unfortunately, even tap water can be dangerous for contact lenses. To this end, try to avoid putting your eyes in any danger. If you don’t take of and clean your lenses at this point, try to keep your face as dry as possible.
- Once you’re out of the water, be sure to remove your contact lenses as quickly as possible. If you are using disposable contacts, be sure to throw them out and change your lenses as quickly as possible. On the other hand, permanent lenses should be cleaned immediately, using whatever cleaning solution your doctor recommends.
In the end, we recommend against swimming while wearing contact lenses. The possible danger far outweighs the benefits. Instead, ask your doctor for advice. Proper medical advice can be invaluable for both your health and peace of mind.
