Thursday 10 July 2014

3 Effects of Cigarette - Smoking on Contact Lens Tolerance

 3 Effects of Cigarette - Smoking on Contact Lens Tolerance

Smoking has never been good to health. It leaves deleterious effects on human body and soul. Stained teeth, mouth sores along with other injurious effects are only some of the preliminary health disasters attributed to smoking. Smoking may even lead to potential ocular damages where people who wear colored contact lenses are at greater risk.


Harmful Effects of Smoking on Contact Lens Tolerance

1. Ocular Damages
A research says; conducted by Johnson and Johnson, Department of Ocular Surface and Visual Optics, Keio University School of Medicine, Tokyo, Japan, “Even brief passive exposure of contact lenses to cigarette smoking have worse effects on the ocular surface in epithelia”. It increases the tear instability which turn eyes dry leading to gross corneal ulcers.

2. Corneal Infiltrates
In simple words corneal infiltrates are corneal inflammation. They are hazy-gray small areas that appear on the cornea often under the upper eyelids. They are composed of inflammatory cells which produce an annoying feeling of having an “external agent” in eyes, with excessive tearing, redness, sensitivity to light & contact lens discomfort.

3. Dryness & Irritation
Smoke from the cigarette may lead to dryness & irritation. The chemicals from cigarette when enter the blood-stream restrict blood-flow to retina which causes bloodshot & itchy eyes. People who wear contact lenses are at greater risk of suffering from such damages as their eyes already lack enough permeability of oxygen.

Though dryness with contact lenses is nothing to be worried about and in most cases it can be cured using rewetting or lubricating drops; treating dryness caused by cigarette smoke would require you to quit wearing contact lenses at the first place furthermore;aggravating the vision problems.


Conclusion:
Cigarette smoking has severe consequences on human health, both internally & externally. What worse? smoking cigarette may lead to permanent blindness, corneal ulcers & blurred vision. You do not need one more reason to quit smoking, especially if you are also one of the contact lens wearer. Do you?

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