Can I Use Contact Lens Drops as Eye Drops?

Can I Use Contact Lens Drops as Eye Drops?

Most of the times, when you wear contact lenses, you only keep your contacts lens drops with you. You seldom think of carrying your eye drops too. But in some cases, your eyes may become too dry while wearing contact lenses, especially if you keep wearing your contact lenses for several hours continuously. If you are feeling a little irritation in your eyes, you feel the need to put some eye drops in them, but unfortunately, you have not brought them in your bag. In that case, the first thing that comes to your mind is: can I use contact lens drops as eye drops? This OneHowTo.com article is going to discuss the subject in detail.

Some say no

The tears in your eyes have two major components, which are oil and water. The job of oil is to stop your tears from getting evaporated. Eye drops are also formulated to support the oil part of your tears, thereby preventing evaporation. But the contact lens drops do not have any oil component. Usually, it is just saline water with an antimicrobial agent and a preservative. So, when you use lens solution as eye drops, you may get temporary relief, but it quickly evaporates and leaves your eyes even drier. The eye drops are specifically designed to provide lubrication to the eyes, but the contact lens drops are not formulated for such purpose. In addition, they also contain some cleaning components that are not good and even irritating for your delicate eyes. So, it is best to avoid using contact lens drops as eye drops.

Take a look at some alternatives on our article on how to soothe eye pain from contacts.

Some say yes

Some say that if you can put the contact lens disinfected with the contact lens drops in your eyes, then why can’t you put the drops directly in your eyes? It will feel almost the same, and will seldom cause any irritation. Do you feel irritation when you put on the contact lenses with the same solution? If the answer is yes, then probably the contact lens solution is not appropriate for you. In that case, you should consult your optometrist and get your solution changed.

The decision is yours

Using contact lens drops as eye drops is safe and does not cause any damage to your eyes. However, they may not be used as alternatives to each other, as each have its own function. You can use contact lens drops as eye drops for some time. If everything goes fine and you do not end up with any eye irritation or infection, then you can continue using them.

Things to consider

This is decided that you can at least occasionally use your contact lens drops as eye drops. But before taking the final step, consider a few things beforehand:

  • First of all, make sure that it is not the contact lens drops that are causing irritation in your eyes. If you further use these drops as eye drops, you may worsen the situation.
  • It is better to choose the contact lens drops that do not contain any preservatives, as they may be toxic to your eyes.
  • If you are ultimately using contact lens drops as eye drops, then make sure that you never touch the tip of your bottle with the surface of your eye. By doing this, you may contaminate the bottle and get an eye infection.

 

This article is merely informative, oneHOWTO does not have the authority to prescribe any medical treatments or create a diagnosis. We invite you to visit your doctor if you have any type of condition or pain.

If you want to read similar articles to Can I Use Contact Lens Drops as Eye Drops?, we recommend you visit our Diseases & secondary effects category.