How to Use Contact Lenses

If you’ve ever tried contact lenses, you might be reading this with glasses instead: An online reader survey of some 7,700 corrective-lens wearers, conducted last spring by the Consumer Reports National Research Center, found that 45 percent who tried contacts in the past decade have quit wearing them. And more than one-fourth of current contact users said they now wear them less than they used to.

You can boost your chances of sticking with your contacts by using them properly, which helps prevent infection as well as dryness and irritation, the two most common reasons for giving up contacts. It’s particularly important not to cut corners in cleaning and storing your lenses. That apparently contributed to the 2006 outbreak in 35 states of fungal infections linked to the use of Bausch & Lomb’s ReNu with MoistureLoc multipurpose lens solution, which the company withdrew from the U.S. in April 2006 and recalled worldwide a month later. Public-health authorities say the product’s unique formulation might have increased the chance of problems caused by sloppy care--specifically, reusing the solution.

“It’s critical that contact wearers take responsibility for proper lens care,” says Thomas Steinemann, M.D., a spokesman for the American Academy of Ophthalmology. But “contacts and solutions should perform even if lens wearers don’t always follow directions,” he says. Some experts say the Food and Drug Administration, which regulates contacts as medical devices, should require manufacturers to prove that their products are safe under real-world conditions, where consumers often slip up. But Daniel Schultz, M.D., director of the FDA’s Center for Devices and Radiological Health, calls that “an almost impossible standard.”

Despite the importance of carefully following instructions, most contact users in our survey didn’t: Some 60 percent who were supposed to replace their lenses regularly said they had worn them longer than recommended in the past year. Not surprisingly, dry or irritated eyes was a very common complaint.

Here’s our eye consultants’ advice on choosing and caring for contact lenses.