Contact Lenses Are Safe for Children—With Proper Care

Recently there has been a flurry of news postings on the Internet and elsewhere about the number of emergency room visits (approximately 17,000 by some estimates) from children and teens related to their wearing of contact lenses. This leads to the question, “Are contacts safe for children?”

The short answer is yes, as recent studies* have concluded that children as young as eight can be successfully introduced to contact lens wear. Certainly their desire for them will continue—especially when issues of self-esteem, sports participation, and comfortable vision correction are ever present. However, there are some things to keep in mind.

The common reasons for these visits are preventable infections, eye abrasions, and conjunctivitis (‘pink-eye’) caused most often by the failure to adhere to required wearing and replacement schedules. One must always remember that contacts are regulated medical devices that must be prescribed and properly fitted by an eye doctor. Contacts are also subject to strict wear time and cleaning regimens that are to be followed diligently. The lens cases in which contacts are stored should be changed once a month. Use only prescribed cleaning solutions. Carry out all instructions from your eye doctor and maintain regularly scheduled visits to monitor eye health.

Whether or not a child or teen is ready for contact lenses is not based solely on their years, but also on their ability to handle the responsibility that comes with wearing them. Parents are the best judges of their children’s sense of responsibility and this judgment is an important deciding factor when it comes to pairing kids with contacts. Once this pairing occurs, parents should not step away from supporting and reinforcing good wearing habits beyond their child’s initial training. Also key is setting a positive example when parents are lens wearers themselves. When these concerns are successfully hurdled, any problems that could threaten eye health are minimized.

Ongoing advances in technology will also continue to make contact lens wear a healthy practice, an example being the development of daily disposables that provide an easy once-a-day use—eliminating the need for a daunting cleaning regimen.

Having a child that wears contact lenses need not be a worrisome endeavor, especially when proper levels of diligence and responsibility are applied to ensure a safe and satisfactory experience with their lenses.


*The Contact Lenses in Pediatrics (CLIP) and Pediatric Refractive Error Profile (PREP) are two examples.

There Is a Soft Contact Lens for Your Vision Needs

Despite the fact that soft contact lenses have been around for many years now, there are still some people who are not aware of the full range and benefits they provide. This is especially true if they were told in the past that there was no ideal contact lens for their type of correction. Once accustomed to eyeglasses, and assuming the issue of wearing contacts has been settled, these persons very often never followed up on new information that could change an outdated diagnosis. When you couple this with the fact that under 20% of eye doctors proactively recommend contacts*, it is not surprising that even though innovations in lens technology have put soft contacts at the forefront (approximately 90% of lenses sold are soft contacts), there are those who are unaware that they could be wearing them today.

Soft contacts began as a means of single vision correction (near- or farsightedness), but they have marched far past that initial application. Today there are soft contacts available to treat astigmatism (torics) and presbyopia (multifocals). There are brands that provide UV-blocking to protect your cornea from the sun. In recent years cosmetic soft contacts have emerged to allow enhancements or complete changes in eye color for fashion or costume use.

In the realm of convenience and comfort, hydrogel and silicone hydrogel soft contacts have an advantage due to their makeup of water-containing plastics. This technology allows more oxygen to be transmitted to the cornea; keeping eyes healthy during lens wear. Certainly, the most convenient modality of hydrogels is the daily disposable, which are used once and discarded at the end of the day. There are other lenses with differing wear times, e.g. two-week and thirty-day disposables, but daily disposables eliminate the cleaning and care regimen that comes with contacts worn repeatedly for a period of time.

Contact lenses have become easier for users to obtain after a 2004 federal law required that patients be given their contact prescription from eye doctors. The ability to source lenses with a valid prescription in venues other than their eye doctor’s office has dovetailed with the growth of online vendors to service contact lens shoppers. The result is an easy and affordable means to replenish wearers’ contact lens supplies.

So, if you are among those that gave up on wearing contacts in the past--for whatever reason—you owe it to yourself to explore the possibility that you could be experiencing the freedom and satisfaction that come with contact lenses. Begin a conversation with your eye doctor to see if the many improvements in contacts have now allowed you to become a ‘good fit’ for lenses…you may be pleasantly surprised.


* “Targeting Contact Lens Practice Growth” by David M. Pearce, President of Responsible Marketing Consulting Services.