What Are the Consequences of Wearing Contact Lenses for an Extended Period of Time?

Nowadays, people are increasingly pursuing fashion. Many people with myopia have discarded their unattractive spectacles and replaced them with contact lenses. Although contact lenses provide a better visual effect for people with myopia, wearing them for a long time can still cause some harm to eye health. Attention must be paid to this aspect. So what happens if you wear contact lenses for a long time? Let's take a look at this aspect.

Contact lenses are used to correct refractive errors, and are widely used due to their simplicity and lightness. However, wearing them for too long is not advisable, as contact lenses are worn on the surface of the cornea, and the nutrients of the corneal tissue are replenished by absorbing oxygen from the air. If contact lenses are worn for more than eight hours, it can cause hypoxia of the corneal tissue. Hypoxia of the corneal tissue can lead to poor function of the corneal epithelium, causing edema of the corneal tissue, and even shedding of the corneal epithelium, which can lead to a series of eye inflammations, causing photophobia, tearing, and other symptoms for the patient. Severe corneal ulcers can even affect the patient's visual function. Therefore, wearing contact lenses should not exceed eight hours a day, and it is not advisable to wear contact lenses overnight for sleeping.

No. The normal cornea needs to "breathe". When the eyes are open, the oxygen supply to the cornea mainly comes from the atmosphere, and when the eyes are closed, it mainly comes from the corneal limbus and conjunctival vessels, which accounts for only one-third of the oxygen supply when the eyes are open. Therefore, wearing contact lenses while sleeping can easily lead to corneal hypoxia.

Frame glasses are placed in front of the eyes, while contact lenses are directly attached to the front of the cornea, without the vertex distance effect of frame glasses. At the same time, according to certain optical principles, the power of contact lenses for nearsighted people is slightly lower than the power of frame glasses, while the opposite is true for farsighted people.