Where and how do you store your contact lens cases when not in use?
So much time and effort is spent by doctors and patients regarding the proper care of contact lenses themselves that the importance of contact lens cases may get overlooked. However, overlooking the risks associated with contact lens cases could be damaging to your eyes. 
A new study from the University of New South Wales in Australia looked at the effect of air-drying contact lens cases in different locations and positions. The results of the study were very interesting and should be considered by every contact lens patient in order to reduce their risk for contact lens case contamination and subsequent eye infection.
The researchers looked at the contamination rates for air-drying contact lens cases face up and face down in four different locations: toilet, bathroom, bedroom, and office. They found that the microbial contamination rate of lens cases air-dried face up was 6 times higher than cases dried face down. Nearly 73% of cases positioned face up were contaminated by bacteria and/or fungi. That contamination would greatly increase a patients risk for serious eye infections and permanent vision loss.
The study also found that when cases were positioned face up, the contamination rate was higher when the cases were located in humid environments (toilet/bathroom) than in drier environments (bedroom/office). Although, when the cases were positioned face down, there was little difference between humid and dry environments.
The big take home message: contact lens cases stored face up pose serious health risks and those risks can be significantly reduced by air drying the cases face down. The bigger take home message: better public awareness is needed regarding the importance of contact lens case hygiene.



ovie theater and turns the focussing knob to a much stronger setting. The movie on the screen is now blurry. Another reason for myopia is the eye may be too long. Sounds strange, but the visual system of the eye is designed to focus at a certain distance between the cornea and the retina. Imagine that same movie theater in which the engineers have designed a projector system focussed on a screen with a set distance. But what if someone knocked out the back wall of the movie theater and moved the screen back 10 feet? It would be blurry because now the projector is over-focused for this new longer screen distance.
behind the retina instead of directly on the retina. This may happen if the cornea curvature is too flat (too weak) or if the eye is too short. Just to muddy the waters, if someone has a lot of hyperopia their far away vision can also be blurry….we’ll save that one for another blog post!
This is a great topic as more and more people buy smart phones and spend more time using applications on those phones.
muscles. This is for two reasons. First, most of us hold our smart phones at a distance much closer than we view our computers. The closer the distance, the greater the contraction of near focus. Secondly, the print or text on smart phones is typically much smaller than that found on computers. The smaller the print, the greater the contraction of near focus.
ions through their ability to interact with hormone controls. An “essential” fatty acid is one that our bodies can’t make naturally and must be obtained by consuming food. Two such categories of “essential” fatty acids are Omega-3 and Omega-6.
symptoms compared to those who only consumed tuna once a week.
and let them know we appreciate everything they put into the development of our youth.