Can I wear Contact Lenses when I Catch Cold?

Contact lenses help you maintain an improved vision. Unfortunately they come with certain restrictions. To help prevent infections, it is necessary you follow your doctor’s advice about continuing to wear your lenses when you are sick or under weather. Contact lenses should feel fine when your body temperature rises slightly. However, you should cease wearing contact lenses if fever is accompanied by strong flu, runny nose & itchy/inflamed eyes. Since fever and cold along with medicines can affect tear-chemistry; contact lenses may be irritable for your eyes until you fully heal.

Avoiding contact lenses can be an obstacle in your day to day life if you rely on them for vision correction. Unless, you are suffering from a severe ocular infection, you can still wear your colored contacts safely; provided they are daily disposable. Strong weather changes such as storms, windy weather and spring where there are innumerable pollen particles suspended in the air; call for a wise contact lens management. Switching to daily disposables from annual replacement should work fine when you are under strong influenza virus attack or are battling through air borne irritants.

During cold, every time you rub your eyes you are unknowingly transferring germs to them. This may lead to contact lens contamination and re-wearing the same pair of contacts when you recover will have an increased risk of infection. Moreover, due to the reduced and compromised tear film; your eyes may feel drier which makes it uncomfortable to wear contacts during an illness. Fortunately, influenza virus is not always very severely strong. If you think your eyes are unaffected, please feel free to wear soft lenses when unavoidable.

In short; you are your own home doctor. Before you could run to a professional you must have enough knowledge to deal with your troubles. Remember a stitch in time, saves nine! Ask yourself if your eyes look good enough with circle contacts. Whenever in doubt, remove them – your eyes are not worth the risks.