Contact Lens

[jjach]

I will be starting my open water class in a few weeks and have some concerns about wearing my contacts. With the mask removal and breathing with no mask during the confined dives and my open water dives, would it be better not to wear the contact lens.Eventually I know I should get a mask that has a prescription lens, but that will come later. Right now I am used to keeping my eyes closed in the water, even in my own swimming pool. It will take some getting used to opening my eyes in the water. If the contacts are in they will just float away. What do some of you other contact lens wearers do?

 

[NadMat]

I wear daily disposables for diving, and non disposable the rest of the time. If I was planning on doing mask removal/replacement where I would have to open eyes I would wear no contacts at all, I can dive comfortably like that, but it would depend on how bad your vision is, and in which direction. I am near sighted, but not terribly so, and this seems to work fine for me. Haven't lost a contact yet, but if I do, there is another pair of daily disposables in my gear. Have fun diving.

 

[Web Monkey]

I will be starting my open water class in a few weeks and have some concerns about wearing my contacts. With the mask removal and breathing with no mask during the confined dives and my open water dives, would it be better not to wear the contact lens.Eventually I know I should get a mask that has a prescription lens, but that will come later. Right now I am used to keeping my eyes closed in the water, even in my own swimming pool. It will take some getting used to opening my eyes in the water. If the contacts are in they will just float away. What do some of you other contact lens wearers do?

I've worn contacts while diving for the past 5 years, and they work great. I just keep my eyes closed whenever the mask comes off or fills with water.

AFAIK, there are no skills you need to demonstrate that require that you have your eyes open underwater with no mask.

Also, make sure you're diving with cheap throw-aways (your eye doc can find some for you), and toss them at the end of the day, since the contact lens solution won't kill everything in the water, and a contaminated lens can grow really funky stuff.

You don't want an eye infection that your doc has probably never seen before.

Terry


Terry

 

[ScubaThor]

Same here...I wear my disposables when I'm diving, with no issues at all. However, I would definitely go without during the OW class, as you will be doing quite a bit of stuff without a mask on your face...and eyes open under water with lenses in them is not so pleasant.
Since things are naturally magnified under water, you might be ok without lenses.
My two cents.

 

[TheAlphaMag]

Hey and welcome to the world of SCUBA!

I just got my certification this month, and I too wore contacts.

What you're going to learn how to do is fill up your mask with water, and then blow out through your nose to 'clear' the water out of it.

I was in water with a higher salinity then I'm used to when I first did this in open water. My eyes did burn pretty bad for a few seconds. I got the feeling that you need to rub the heck out of your eyeball, but couldnt. It went away in 10 seconds, so it was very managable.

Anyways, what you have to do is keep your eyes closed while you remove your mask. Before the dive, tell your instructor that you're wearing contacts and will keep your eyes closed. When you remove your mask at any time, keep your eyes shut nice and tight.

When you go to open your eyes, your mask is nice and clean and you can see fine (but they might burn a little bit)

Did that help?

 

[Stogie8]

I have been wearing contacts while diving for about 10 years now. It is great. I haven't had a single problem. If water gets in to your mask close your eyes and just quickly clear it out. The lenses shouldn't float away. I always keep a spare set of lenses with my dive gear in case I lose one during the dive. The best thing about lenses is that you don't have to go back and forth between glasses and a prescription mask and have periods waiting on the boat with either your mask on your face or being blind until you put the mask on. Go for it, you won't regret the choice.

 

[MtnDiver]

I have really bad vision without lenses, so I also wear disposable lenses for diving. Good advice to toss them afterwards, that is what my eye doctor told me to do. I also keep a spare pair in my save-a-dive kit, just in case something funky happens and I lose one on a dive.

Did my OW checkout dives with my lenses in and had no problems doing the floods/purges/mask remove & replace.

 

[divingjd]

I wear contacts while diving and have ever since I was certified. I have had a number of students use contacts as well. It's just like TheAlphaMag said, I just ask anybody if they are wearing contacts and tell them to keep their eyes closed. I do not, however, wear contacts when I am teaching. I have to keep my eyes open when I demonstrate mask clearing and removal skills so that I can keep an eye on the students. My correction is pretty minor, so I am fine without them. If you open your eyes with contacts without a mask (or with the mask flooded), they will float away. I had this happen once swimming in a pool when I forgot I had the lenses in. I have not heard about trashing the lenses and that would not work well for me. I have toric lenses and they don't have a daily toric lens. Mine are "frequent replacement" (they last about a month) so tossing them would mean at least $30 a day. I use a good lens cleaner and have never had a problem. You do not HAVE to get a prescription mask. Do it if you like it better, but lots of people use a regular mask and contacts.

 

[diverdown247]

Fortunately, I do not wear contacts, BUT....I did get certified in Cuba and logged 60+ dives there, some with contact wearers.

I was informed by my instructors that contacts are pool safe only(even that is iffy) and should never be worn in open water. Salt water is a corrosive and can damage the surface of the eye when it gets between the contact lens and the eye. If you let the salt water dry at all once it's trapped there, the salt will crystalize and can easily scratch and even cut the surface of the eye which can lead to nasty infections or worse. Chlorine in the pool can and most often will act much in the same manner as salt in salt water when it dries.

In fresh water, you have the issue of fresh water bacterias and contaminants getting between the lens and the eye. Granted there is less of a risk to eye damage in fresh water, but the problem still exists to a point.

These instructors always educated students to the issue, but also stated that if they were sure to rinse with fresh water and follow it by salene solutions (or simply take out the contacts) once out of the water, it shouldn't be a problem. They, as well as myself, realize that prescription lenses for masks aren't cheap and for some simply aren't practical.

 

[divingjd]

There is no air space between the contact lens and the cornea, so it would be very hard for anything to get between the lens and the eye. I have never heard anything like this and it sounds pretty odd to me.