swimming with contact lenses (Page 2)

x2. 

Been competitively pool swimming since I was four.  I couldn't see without glasses and yet I couldn't manage to keep a pair since I was always in the lake/ pool and they were always going to the bottom of the lake or being misplaced.  So, instead I've had soft contacts since I was ten.  I'm 27 and I've NEVER (hopefully I'm not kinxing myself) had a problem.  I don't even own a pair of glasses (whoops) and I wear my single day disposables from 6am to midnight.  Ya, my eye doctor loves me. 
Since I have daily disposables I keep a few here and there just in case something happens.  This includes two on my towel in transition... but, knock on wood, never lost a contact  :D

I guess if you would prefer contacts I would do it, but there is definitely an adjustment period.  If you can't stand the contacts and prefer glasses, then I'd go with the Rx lenses... which I never knew about, btw...

While the risk of infection while swimming in a pool is low, it increases when you add contact lenses and increases more during OWS with CL's. I agree with Dr. Hungus, Acanthamoeba is ugle and can be vision threatening if not detected and treated early.

My take- if you swim and wear contact lenses, any sign of a red irritated eye, go to your eye doctor immediately. Tell them you swim, especially if OWS. Early treatment can minimize corneal and vision loss.

Best case- Daily soft disposable contacts and throw them away after swimming.

Edited by Idrtim 2010-09-24 11:21 AM

I have worn contacts for more than 20 years.  I use the daily disposables for swimming  (toss them post swim) and race days.  I have a pair of disposable (the kind that can go a month) for the rest of the time.  There is a risk of conjunctivitis if swimming with contacts if your goggles are leaking .  Yes, washing the lenses helps, but my eye Dr prefers I dispose the lenses after 1 swim.

Listen to The Queen!

Daily Disposable Contact lenses cost about $1 a day X 3 swims/week = $156

I wear soft contacts (colour and clear) and goggles for pool and OWS and everything is fine.

I wear the rx goggles into T1 and take them off and put on my rx sunglasses, which I wear for the bike and the run. No problem at all.

This is actual not a valid analogy. A cut on your cornea (front clear "window" of your eye that the contact sits on top of) is nothing like a cut any where else on your body. The cornea is avascular and once the surface integrity is compromised, infection sets up much more quickly and there are not the coping mechanisms that are present elsewhere in the body secondary to the lack of blood vessels. And the consequences of a cut and subsequent infection on your cornea is much more dire than almost anywhere else on your body. You can go blind or require a corneal transplant.

I'm am not trying to be argumentative or scare people, I am trying to educate people to the real risks. It is ultimately your choice and obviously choose what you want but at least have the data to make an informed decision.

This is something I know a bit about and I have personally performed transplants on two people who developed infections in their corneas from swimming with contacts and have treated over 50 people who developed infections from swimming in contacts that were left with permanent scars but did not require transplant.

There is a real risk, it is not common, but it is not rare either.

ETA: BTW, I wear contacts all the time when I am not swimming. I have nothing against contacts in general but I do feel that people would be better served wearing $30 dollar rx goggles and having none of the increased risk one gets from swimming with contacts in. I have nothing personal invested in this except dispensing what I feel is the best medical and corneal advice I can for free!

Edited by Karl Hungus 2010-09-24 2:35 PM

I use prescription goggles (I got them for less than $20, seriously they arent expensive, but you need to know your prescription).  I am about -5.5 on both sides, so I ordered a pair of -5.0s (they only had whole numbers).  Its plenty good enough to be able to see with just a little less correction than usual.

During a race, I will get out of the water and leave the goggles on until I get to my bike.  I dont care how stupid I look, if I take them off I cant see anything at all.  I leave my sunglasses (I have Rudys with the prescription insert) in my helmet in T1, so as soon as I can see them, I take off the goggles and put on the sunglasses. 

At my last race, as I was running out of the water, a spectator yelled out "hey dude you still have your goggles on!!!" but I dont care.  I might look like a moron running with goggles but at least I could find my T1 area

I am brand new to triathlons but have been swimming and SCUBA diving for years.

For pool swims and open water dives, I have prescription goggles/masks.  I also carry non-prescription goggles/masks as a back-up in my bag with a spare set of contacts.

For the one triathlon that I completed (and yes I am now hooked), I wore soft contact lenses under my goggles.  I wear monthly disposable lens and timed it so that I could throw the pair out immediately after the race.  My goggles were ripped off my face in the swim and I did lose one lens but even if that hadn't happened, I wouldn't have wanted to keep lenses that had been subjected to ocean water. 

Yes!!  I used to wear weekly soft disposables.   I had never had any issues in the past.  I was actually biking after a big rain and got splashed in the eye.  The next day my eye was a little red and irritated.  I went to my eye doctor and started antibiotic drops.  it got worse and by the next day I was admitted to the hospital with a raging eye infection and came very close to losing that eye.  I ended up with a big scar on my cornea and permenant vision loss.  Now my only option is gas permeable contacts. 

I can appreciate the dissertation, but I was referring to a cut or scrape in the skin, which is about the same infection risk as contacts (minimal). I've been swimming since I was 4 (39 years), with 17 years on teams, and another 22 of rec/triathlon swimming in pools and OWS. Mostly in contacts, extended daily wear. I've never had a problem.

All I was saying, is that yes, there is a possibility, and it is important to be aware of things, but people don't need to panic either.

John

Sorry, I misunderstood your statement.

I thought that you were saying that swimming with contacts and a "cut" on your cornea was no worse than swimming with a cut anywhere else on your body.

Actually contact lens wear in general increases your risk of a corneal infection by over 15 times. Every time I, or you, or anyone wears their contact lenses they are actually getting microabrasions on their corneas.

This is normally totally okay but when you mix water contamination into the picture, either in the shower or the pool, it further greatly increases the risk of corneal ulcers.

Once again, I am just putting out to the forum the actual data on this, I have nothing invested in this except the health of peoples eye. I completed a fellowship in Cornea/External Disease and Refractive Surgery atWills Eye Hospital after my ophthalmology residency and actually know a great deal about this subject, both through study and patient experience.

No self respecting ophthalmogist, and esp not a cornea doc, worth their medical license would ever advise someone to swim with contacts.

But, to each their own.

Not trying to use scare tactics, just informing people to the facts.

Again, thanks for the dissertation. However, I guess every optho that I've gone to in the last 20 years wasn't worth their license, every time I've switched brands of soft lenses I've asked about swimming, the universal answer has been "No problem."

John

John, do you see an ophthalmologist or an optometrist? Most ophthalmologists do not prescribe contact lenses, that is almost universally done by optometrists. Optom's do not have medical licenses and are not trained in eye disease any where near as much as ophthalmologists.

Optometrists (non physcians, they do not go to medical school or residency and are not surgeons) are SUPER at prescribing glasses and contacts but usually they do not treat advanced eye disease.

Ophthalmologists are M.D.s who have grauated form medical school and are physcians and are trained more heavily in eye disease.

As a professeur of ophthalmology residents I know that I, and all of my M.D. collegues, always tell people to never swim in their contacts.

Optoms and ophtho's do not always see "eye-to-eye" (sorry, could not resist the pun )

But, I apologize to the OP as John and I have gotten off on a tangent.

Bottom line: Many people swim for their entire lives in contacts without problems but you are at an increased risk of having an eye infection if you do.

Peace to John and everyone else!

Swim and enjoy life and curb your risks where you feel a need to.

Buck