13 Can I dive in contact lenses (contacts)? Is it safe? Will I go blind?
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This article is from the Scuba Diving FAQ, by njs@scifi.maid.com (Nick Simicich) with numerous contributions by others.
13 Can I dive in contact lenses (contacts)? Is it safe? Will I go blind?
The safety of contacts revolves around several issues:
Will nitrogen absorption affect the contacts?
It is possible that non-gas-permeable contacts will get bubbles
under them. For this reason, if you do wear contacts, they
should be gas permeable or soft, or they should have holes
drilled in them.
What is the likelihood of losing a contact under water?
If you get water in your mask, and you open your eyes, you
might lose a contact. It might stay in your mask, in which case
you can possibly recover it. If you will be dangerous to
yourself without contacts, (not able to see well enough to find
the boat, and not used to dealing with things by sound) then
this could be serious. You also have to consider the
possibility that your mask will come off underwater, and that
you will have to open your eyes to find it and replace it, and
that your contacts might come off during this process. Losing
contacts in the water has happened to a number of people.
What about the possibility of infection?
You are always at increased risk of eye infection when you wear
contacts. There is some possibility that there are bacteria in
the water that will increase the risk of eye infection. Quick
treatment in the case of contact related infection is
important, and you are not likely to get that treatment on, for
example, a liveaboard.
At least one study has indicated that there is an increased
possibility of Acanthamoeba infection when swimming with
contact lenses. Other practitioners, who do prescribe soft
contacts for swimmers, claim that there is no proof that the
contacts were the proximate cause of the infections, but give
no arguments as to why they feel that there is no correlation.
Are there any special considerations regarding soft contact lenses?
Yes. Dr. Soni, Associate professor of Optometry at Indiana
University has participated in a study which showed that 100%
of soft contact lenses used in pool swimming were contaminated,
when cultured. Normally, soft contact lenses are made up of a
certain percentage of water. They absorb this water from your
tears, and the amount of water they absorb is at least
partially dependent on the salt content of your tears. When you
swim with contact lenses, and you open your eyes, the lens
readjust to the water content of the liquid you are swimming
in. This causes them to stick to your corneas. It is claimed
that it takes 1/2 hour after swimming for the lenses to
equilibriate to tears, and that removal of the lenses before
they equilibriate can damage the cornea, creating a "clear
passage into the cornea for the bacteria from the contaminated
lenses, which will cause infection." Even practitioners who
strongly believe in swimming with contact lenses feel that
disclaimers should be given when prescribing the lenses for
this purpose. The lenses are not approved by the US FDA for
swimming, but this may be just because no tests have been done.
Some of the above information was extracted from an article
from Eyecare Business magazine, the June '91 issue.
Now, many people wear contacts in the ocean without problems, whereas
others prefer prescription masks. If you have simple myopia, there are
several brands of masks with snap in lenses that can be made up
quickly in your dive shop. If you have a more complex prescription,
there are optometrists who can glue lenses into your mask. Many people
seem to really like these.
Whatever you do, please avoid asking this question in rec.scuba. It is
a very frequently asked question. Do a scubasearch on "contacts" or
"prescription", and you will get many thousands of lines of opinion.
People should follow up to this question by email if it is asked again
[IMHO], unless they have new study information or something to quote
that is substantive. (If it is substantive enough, I'll put it in as
part of the FAQ answer.)
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