Cloudy Vision: How to Prevent Protein Buildup on Contact Lenses | Updated 2024

A woman is putting contact lenses with protein buildup on her eye.

If you want to take care of your eyes, you need to take care of your contacts. A big part of this is preventing protein buildup on contact lenses.

Protein buildup can cause all sorts of problems. They can range from annoyances like blurry lenses to more serious problems like damaging your eye.

Luckily there’s plenty of things you can do to prevent protein buildup on your contact lenses. Once you start doing this, you’ll save a fortune not having to buy contact lenses so often.

So read on to learn about exactly how you can prevent your contact lenses from and save yourself from any painful eye damage.

Clean Your Contacts Regularly

Regardless of what you do with your contacts, they’re exposed to everything you’re exposed to. Dirt, wind, rain, and snow. So it’s important to remember to do basic cleaning of your contacts.

The best way to do this is to use the saline solution designed for cleaning contact lenses. Take the lenses out and rub fill the, with saline solution. Then rub the lenses for 10 seconds.

If it’s been a while since you’ve washed your contact lenses, you also need to make sure wash your lenses with a disinfectant designed for use on contact lenses.

If problems persist, then you should try to also wash your contact lenses with hydrogen solution as well.

Whatever you do, you need to make sure you clean your contacts regularly. If you’re not sure about what you should use to clean your contacts, an eye doctor in Nampa should be able to help you out.

Be Aware Of Your Environment

If you live in windy places or somewhere with a lot of air conditioning, you’ll need to be wary of your surroundings.

So you need to be aware of just how much time you spend in these environments. These conditions will cause your eyes to dry out constantly.

This will also happen if you are in conditions with a lot of dust or pet dander.

Your eyes will water to lubricate again, but these particles will get on the lenses, and rub up against them. This will leave residue on the lens and will contribute to protein buildup on the lens.

Use Eye Drops To Avoid Protein Buildup On Contact Lenses

To prevent protein buildup by way of dry eyes make sure you use lubricating eye drops. Your eyes do self lubricate, but constant strain and wind can cause blockages in your eye.

So keep your contacts in and use eye drops on them. Eye drops do more than lubricate. They also clean your contacts. Make sure to use eye drops daily, as they are vital to maintaining your contacts.

This doesn’t mean you should stop cleaning your contact lenses with saline, however. Both are vital in preventing protein buildup and keeping your eyes healthy and maintaining good vision.

Make Sure Your Lenses Are Properly Fitted

If your contacts aren’t fitted properly, they’ll slide around your eyes and cause irritation. In addition to causing you stress, your eyes will also start producing tears.

Your tears will lubricate your eyes, but at a cost. Your tears contain proteins, and if your eyes are constantly producing tears, they get stuck t your contact lenses.

These proteins accumulate on the lenses and cause protein buildup. So make sure your contact lenses aren’t too big or too small.

Fortunately, Eye Pros are leaders in Idaho eye care and you can schedule a contact lens fitting at one of our locations.

Remember To Take Off Your Contacts

Falling asleep with your contacts in is common. But you need to remember to take those contacts out and make sure you don’t use them again until they’ve been soaked in saline and you’ve cleaned them.

The reason for this is that leaving your contacts in for extended periods of time can lead not only to protein buildup, but also cornea infections, which can damage your eyes permanently.

You don’t want to end up at a Boise eye care center diagnosed with permanent eye damage because of something as trivial as forgetting to change your contacts.

Always read the label on your contacts, and do your best to never wear them for longer than necessary. If you need new contacts and don’t want to get them online, you should be able to get them from an eye doctor in Boise.

Maintain Good Hygiene

Another one of the many reasons you should keep your hands clean is to avoid dirtying your contact lenses. As a rule of thumb, you should avoid touching your face if you haven’t washed your hands recently.

Grease, dirt, grime, and whatever you touch could end up on your contact lenses and make them dirty. Additionally, you can end up causing more than protein buildup if you touch your eyes with dirty hands.

You could give yourself an eye infection. If you’re experiencing any strange symptoms not caused by your contacts, you should head to your nearest Idaho eye center.

Put Your Contacts On Last

When you’re getting ready in the morning, you can get all sorts of debris into your eye. Brushing your hair can get hair and possibly dandruff into your eye.

Showering can get soap or shampoo into your eye, and the list goes on. So to avoid this, make sure putting your contacts in is the last thing you do before you leave your house.

You should also avoid scratching your head too often, as this can also get hair particles in your eye.

Your Eyes Are Important

You only get one set of eyes, and you need to take care of them. If you skip out on wearing your contacts consistently, you could do serious damage to your eyes.

So make sure to follow these steps precisely. If problems persist even after you’ve stopped protein buildup on contact lenses, the problem could be with your eye.

Blurred vision and spots in your field of vision could mean anything, so it’s best to get a doctor’s opinion on the matter. If you want the best in Boise eye care, schedule an appointment at our clinic today.