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The three habits that cause most contact lens trouble
Water, sleep and topping up the solution. Almost every serious contact lens problem we see traces back to one of those three, and all three are ordinary things sensible people do.
Almost every serious contact lens problem seen in a practice traces back to one of three ordinary things, none of which feel careless at the time: water, sleep, and topping up the solution rather than replacing it. All three are worth knowing, because all three are completely avoidable and none of them require anything you do not already own.
Water
Tap water, bottled water, and even the water in a swimming pool are not sterile in the way contact lens solution is, and a lens rinsed or stored in any of them can carry an organism onto the eye that a lens case full of proper solution does not. The habit this usually shows up as is rinsing a lens under the tap because the solution bottle is empty, or wearing lenses in the shower or the pool out of habit rather than checking whether that particular lens is meant for it.
Sleep
Falling asleep in lenses that are not fitted for overnight wear is one of the most common ways an ordinary day turns into an uncomfortable one. A closed eyelid cuts off most of the oxygen a lens normally lets through, and a lens sitting on the eye all night is a lens that has not been off long enough for the surface to recover before it goes back on the next morning. If a nap with lenses in is a regular thing rather than a rare one, it is worth saying so at a check-up rather than working around it alone.
Topping up the solution
Adding a little fresh solution to what is already sitting in the case, rather than tipping it out and starting again, is the habit that saves the least money and causes the most trouble. Solution loses its disinfecting strength once it has been sitting in a case, and topping it up dilutes what is left rather than renewing it. The case itself is worth replacing every few months — rinsed and air-dried between uses rather than sealed up wet, which is how a case that looks perfectly clean stops actually being clean.
What to do if something feels wrong
Take the lenses out first, before anything else, and do not put them back in. Ring and describe what you are feeling rather than waiting to see if it settles on its own — an eye that has been uncomfortable under a lens for more than a few hours is worth being looked at properly, and a contact lens check is a short appointment for exactly that reason.
Get fitted properly, and get taught the handling
A fitting measures the eye and teaches the parts people dread, for as long as it takes to get comfortable.