lenses. Even if you need corrective lenses for the first time and are considering going straight to contact lenses, you must do your homework first in order to be prepared for a series of decisions you must make concerning what type of contact lenses to wear and what type of care and maintenance routine will be required. In all cases, these two will go hand in hand. You can choose from Rigid Gas Permeable lenses, Toric lenses, vial lenses or soft contact lenses. Before you do so, you must learn the differences between each type of lens and what it will mean to you personally. Then, you must choose whether to use disposable contact lenses or not.
Again, there will be a number of factors to consider in terms of lifestyle, schedule and budget. One thing you might be concerned about, if you are thinking about getting contact lenses, is how the climate conditions in your local area might affect the way contact lenses interact with your eyes. Even if weather is not necessarily a concern in the specific place you live in, you might still be concerned about the weather's effect on your corrective lenses in a city or town you're planning on visiting. Whether you're investigating the weather effects on contacts where you live or somewhere you plan on travelling to, the information below will help you prepare accordingly.
Dust and Corrective Contact Lenses
By far, the most uncomfortable climate condition for contact lens wearers is dust flying through the air as a result of wind kicking up the dirt. Many contact lens wearers will agree that dust is the most uncomfortable of weather conditions. If you are considering hard contact lenses, you should be especially weary of gusty winds that carry dust as dust has been known to be very painful when caught in hard lenses. Luckily, wearing sunglasses on dusty days can help to minimize the adverse effects and keep most of the dust away from your eyes and contact lenses. If you live in a place where the weather tends to be dusty often, removing your contact lenses regularly (every couple of hours, or when you come in from the dusty weather outside) to clean and rinse them then put them back in.
Dry Heat and Your Contacts
In arid climate conditions such as those experienced in deserts all over the United States, keeping your contact lenses moist can become quite the challenge. What happens is that the heat and dry air work together to sort of suck the cooling moisture that your eye naturally provides to the contact lens. While the effects of dry heat on your eyes and your contact lenses will not be unbearable, many contact lens users find that application of rewetting drops is very effective in restoring comfort.
Cold and Rainy Weather & Your Contact Lenses
In most types of extreme weather, contact lenses are regarded as fairing better, simply because you don't have to deal with fogging up of the lenses or dealing with bulky frames on the bridge of your nose. Generally speaking, there is no weather that is unsafe for wearing contact lenses. However, most eye care professionals will recommend that you don't maintain your eyes open (without blinking) for extended periods of time in -40F winds. Even if you weren't wearing contacts, this advice might hold true.
When you visit your eye care professional and select the type of contact lenses that you are going to use, make sure to ask your doctor about any climate-related concerns that might be specific to your lenses.
Author: Amy Nutt
