Wash Your Hands AND Clean Your Glasses

We’ve heard it since we were little kids, “wash your hands.” But now more than ever, washing your hands needs to become a daily ritual for the health and well being of yourself, your family, your friends and our entire community. Providence Eye wants to remind and inform you of a few important steps with regards to caring for your eyes, glasses and contact lenses to avoid getting sick. We all know that colds, the flu and other illnesses are primarily transmitted through holes in our face; nose, eyes, and mouth. So keeping germs off our face is mission-critical, and it’s why you keeping hearing “don’t touch your face!”

Sure, you have cleaned smudges off your lenses before, but now it’s time to get serious and clean the frames, too. Drs. Mozayeni, Nunnery and Mills recommend you do the following every time you return to your home. Even if you are staying at home, then at least once a day:

• Use warm, soapy water and gently rub the lenses as well as the entire frame; earpieces, nose rest, arms and perimeter of the lens. Rinse and dry with a soft lint-free cloth
• Tips: coffee filters work great for drying
• Never use rubbing alcohol or Windex
• Don’t use any of your clothing to clean your glasses
• Don’t breath on your glasses to clean them

Contact lens hygiene has never been more important. Here are our tips:

• ALWAYS wash your hands with hot soapy water for 20 seconds prior to inserting or removing your lenses.
• If your lenses are daily, throw them away every day and use a fresh pair the next day
• If you wear extended wear contacts:
  • Sanitize your lens case on a weekly basis by boiling in hot water
  • Make sure your saline solution is not expired and always close the top
  • Throw them away when the extended period is up - either 2 weeks or 1 month
• NEVER sleep in your contacts. Even if the manufacture indicates your lenses are okay to sleep in, now more than ever, your corneas need a break and they need to ‘breath’ clean air

Should you encounter an infection, reach out to your current eye care provider and gain their professional advice.

Maintaining your annual eye exams with proper prescriptions is an important part of your overall health. Our optometrist, Dr. Vanessa Mills, looks forward to seeing you, their patients, in the coming months.

If you think you may want to investigate other options besides glasses and contacts like LASIK or PRK vision correction surgery, contact us for a complimentary consultation with our LASIK surgeon Dr. Reza Mozayeni.

Your health and safety has always been our priority but now more than ever it is our job as a community to take care of each other.