What are the harmful effects of contact lenses?

UK based medical doctor and social media influencer Dr. Olufunmilayo has in his usual manner educated his followers on the harmful effects of contact lenses and also gave tips on how to manage them.

Read his tweets below………

Be careful with Contact Lenses.

They can cause a burst in tiny blood vessels of the eyes leading to a bleeding into the white eye part.

Wear your lenses gently and properly.

Don’t rub your eyes too hard.

Don’t be scared.

This usually goes on its own after 2weeks.

harmful effects of contact lenses
harmful effects of contact lenses

The pics you just saw is medically called “subconjunctival hemorrhage”.

It is the term for bleeding due to a burst blood vessel on the eye surface.

The layer covering the white of the eye is called the conjunctiva.

It has many small blood vessels that burst and bleed easily.

If blood vessels burst, blood can then leak under the conjunctiva. And when this happens, the blood causes part of the white of your eye to turn red.

Side effects of colored contact lenses
Bad side effects of contact lenses

This can be due to a slap, coughing, sneezing, vomiting, straining hard in toilet, eye infection and sometimes it just happens.

And of course, it can also be due to contact lens use. This is the commonest cause in young people.

The thing looks very scary but actually there’s no cause for alarm.

It is usually not a serious problem and tends to go on its own within 2-3weeks without any treatment.

Bleeding in the eye
Bleeding in the eye, a complication of contact lenses.

But remember, that decision is NOT for you to make. You must go to the doctor because a very red eye may also be a sign of something serious that can easily lead to blindness and loss of the eye if nothing is done fast.

Apart from rupture of blood vessels and subconjunctival hemorrhage, other complications that may arise from contact lenses are blockage of oxygen supply to the eye, conjunctivitis (eye infection), loss of corneal reflex, eye irritation, red eyes, dry eyes, corneal injury (corneal ulcer),

His tweets

Thanks for reading.

Yours sincerely,

Dr Olufunmilayo

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