Concern: Contact Lenses and the Sea

[sabine_john]

Greetings Everyone,

This is Sabine. I've been oscillating between getting an expensive dive mask prescription or simply wearing contact lenses. What problems can arise in general from contact lenses and the sea? Thanks in advance!

 

[verona]

Hi, Sabine. I wear daily lenses while diving and have not had any problems at all - knock on wood. The medics will be able to say more but I would think the only issue might be that if you lost your mask or it flooded, there might be bacteria in the water that would sting the eye or get trapped by the lens. But if you have daily lens and there is a problem, you throw them away anyway.

 

[Northeastwrecks]

I wore them for several years until I got a prescription mask.

I didn't have any major problems. However, I found that my lenses got dry, particularly on long dives or when diving repetitively.

Overall, I prefer the prescription mask.

One circumstance in which I would strongly advise you to get the mask is if you cannot see well enough to read your gauges or see your buddy if you lose a lens.

 

[Marek K]

Hi Sabine--

I am extremely nearsighted (minus 10 diopters, with moderately-high astigmatism), and I've done it both ways.

Advantages to using contact lenses are: 1) it's obviously less expensive, if you're already wearing them; and 2) you can see normally when you don't have your mask on -- particularly important on a shore dive when you have to walk to the water.

Obvious disadvantage is that if your mask floods, you risk losing one or both lenses. And are guaranteed to do so if your mask somehow gets knocked off. Another problem would be if you got something under a lens while underwater. Neither case fortunately ever happened to me.

But I'm now at the age where I can't wear contact lenses at all -- I've always had dry eyes, and now need bifocals; and that's beyond the technology of soft lenses (sphere plus cylinder plus bifocal).

So I've been using a mask with corrective lenses since the summer. Not real cheap, but works very well. The lenses are off-the-shelf, so no astigmatism correction; but that doesn't seem to be a problem underwater. Near vision isn't a problem yet either, and I hope it won't be getting much worse now. And for shore dives, I just put my regular glasses into a soft neoprene case and clip them inside a BC pocket.

--Marek

 

[sabine_john]

I experience dry eyes with my contacts normally and use artificial tears for comfort ( every few hours ). Is this feeling of dry eyes going to be much worse under water (why?) and will artificial tears remedy this?
Anyone prone to headaches from dry eyes as I experience headaches from long term eye dryness?
(guess I’ll look up that thread on aspirin for this too)
ps : as my father said "there's always a snag..."
thanks again and see you later

 

[DocVikingo]

Greetings Everyone,

This is Sabine. I've been oscillating between getting an expensive dive mask prescription or simply wearing contact lenses. What problems can arise in general from contact lenses and the sea? Thanks in advance!

Here's what Scubadoc recommends:

-Soft contact lenses are preferred. No corneal edema.
-Soft contacts more susceptible to marine infection. Use disposable lenses.
-Hard lenses cause corneal edema during decompression and after dives. [Prevented by the use of a 'fenestrated' hard lens]
-A good face mask seal minimizes loss of lens during a dive.
-Consciously narrowing the palpebral fissure (the opening for the eyes between the eyelids) can help in decreasing the possibility of a contact lens floating off of the surface of the eye should the mask become flooded.

You may also find the rather rich board archives (http://www.scubaboard.com/search.php?) informative on this issue--->

http://www.scubaboard.com/search.php?searchid=689066

Best regards.

DocVikingo

 

[underwater daphne]

i wear lenses, but for diving only use dailies because if you loose your mask your least concern should be losing your expensive lenses. with dailies you don't care as long as your buddy show's you the way up. also there's no business with bacteria coz you just throw them away after use. i only carry my glasses along on shore or on the boat.

 

[ewong]

I use to wear glasses/contacts when I started diving, but could see well enough
w/o glasses. Over the year my vision got worse, but I couldn't stand wearing contacts even for swimming, it was even worse in salt water. So 3 years ago I got LASIK and voila! Diving hasn't been better since


Eddy.

 

[Northeastwrecks]

I experience dry eyes with my contacts normally and use artificial tears for comfort ( every few hours ). Is this feeling of dry eyes going to be much worse under water (why?) and will artificial tears remedy this?
Anyone prone to headaches from dry eyes as I experience headaches from long term eye dryness?
(guess I’ll look up that thread on aspirin for this too)
ps : as my father said "there's always a snag..."
thanks again and see you later

I find that they feel drier and much less comfortable. I don't know why.

 

[Marek K]

I experience dry eyes with my contacts normally and use artificial tears for comfort ( every few hours ). Is this feeling of dry eyes going to be much worse under water (why?) and will artificial tears remedy this?
Anyone prone to headaches from dry eyes as I experience headaches from long term eye dryness?
(guess I’ll look up that thread on aspirin for this too)
ps : as my father said "there's always a snag..."
thanks again and see you later

Like you, my eyes were always rather dry with contacts. I didn't use artificial tears, but they were uncomfortable by the end of the day. That was another reason why I stopped wearing contacts -- the discomfort seemed to get worse with age.

And I did get headaches, too. That may have been due to the high correction. Even now, with glasses, the optometrist has to weaken my ideal prescription by about a half diopter to stop headaches. (How bad are your eyes?)

However, unlike Northeastwrecks, I never noticed a dryness problem way back when I was diving with contacts.

--Marek