Swimming goggles may reduce the risk for eye infections for contact lens wearers.
Swimming goggles may reduce the risk for eye infections for contact lens wearers.
Swimming in any body of water — including chlorinated swimming pools — increases your risk of eye infection from bacteria and other micro-organisms. This is true particularly if you wear contact lenses when swimming, because these microscopic “bugs” can attach themselves to your contacts or get trapped under your lenses, giving them more time to cause problems.
According to a new study, wearing swim goggles over contact lenses while swimming can reduce the accumulation of bacteria on contact lenses and may thereby reduce eye infection risk for swimmers.
Researchers in Australia evaluated the amount of bacterial colonization on contact lenses worn by 23 contact lens wearers who swam in an ocean (salt water) pool while wearing silicone hydrogel or conventional soft contact lenses. All subjects wore special goggles to mimic goggled and non-goggled conditions while swimming.
Analysis of the study data revealed that the majority of subjects (70 percent) had more bacterial contamination of their contacts after swimming in the non-goggled condition.
Silicone hydrogel and conventional soft lenses had comparable rates of bacterial contamination in both conditions.
The researchers concluded the study results support the notion that wearing close-fitting goggles when swimming offers protection against bacterial contamination of contact lenses.
The research was recently published online by the journal Optometry and Vision Science.