- How old do you have to be to wear contact lenses?
There is no age limit: babies can wear them, and so can seniors. Many eye care professionals begin to encourage contact lens wear at age 11 to 14.
The real issue for teens is not age, but whether they are responsible enough to wear and care for contact lenses properly. Parents, teens, and their eye care practitioner must make this decision together.
- What if a lens gets lost or torn?
Make sure you discuss with your eye doctor what you can do to replace a contact lens that has been torn, damaged or lost. If you wear disposable contacts, you don't have the expense or inconvenience of worrying about a replacement because you'll already have a supply of lenses on hand.
- Can a contact lens get stuck behind the eye?
A natural membrane barrier exists between the front and the back of the eye. That could never, ever happen.
- Is it OK try on a friend's contact lenses?
No, not even if the lenses have no vision correction in them. Dangerous microorganisms that cause serious eye infections can be passed along that way. Most doctors will provide a free trial pair so your teen can see how lenses feel or look.
- Is it okay to sleep in contacts?
Not all contact lenses are designed for overnight wear. Further, not everyone's eyes can adapt to this, even when using the proper lenses. Only an eye care practitioner can judge whether someone is a candidate to sleep in contacts, and no one should sleep with their lenses in unless their eye care practitioner says it's okay.
In addition, overnight wear also creates a small degree of increased health risk. The healthiest way to wear contacts is to remove and discard them each night.
