What can happen if you wear contacts for a long time without taking them out?

Question:

Not even taking them out to sleep or anything

Answers:
The answer to your question depends on what type of lens you are using and what you mean by "a long time". If you are wearing your lenses beyond the recommended time frame you can contract a bacterial infection and possibly damage your corneas. Check with your eye doc to be sure of wear times.

Other Answers:
you'll go blind, seriously, take them off before sleeping

You might get an infection and that might lead to blindness. a number of things: eye infection, cut lens, scratched lens. you should follow the doctors orders on how long to wear them.

I accidently left mine on for two days and my eyes got red and it felt a bit dry.

My friend also told me that she left hers on for a few days, and her eyes were red and they itch.

Another friend of mine said that it ached and felt like something like dust was in her eyes.

You should always take out contacts when you sleep. I know some of them advertise that you can sleep in them, but personally, I never would.

I don't know if you can go blind from wearing them all the time, but it certainly isn't good for your eyes.

I stopped wearing contacts because they would often irritate my eyes and I think I look better with glasses.

Perhaps you should look into that laser surgery so that you never have to wear contacts or glasses ever again.

Not sure.. but I would guess it's probably not good. They make some long term ones that you leave in for like two straight weeks, but I assume they're made special and different than regular contacts. I'd say just follow the directions. If you forgot to take them out one night, I'm sure it's not a huge deal, but I wouldn't make a habit out of it. There might be an 800 number on the box you could call and ask or something. I wore my contacts for a LONG time when I was younger. I almost had a hemorrhage in my eye, which would have caused me to go blind. Your eye can't breathe when you wear your contacts all the time and the squiggly red things in your eye will grow closer to your pupil. Mine got so close that I will never be able to have laser corrective surgery (until technology allows maybe).

my friend left hers in overnight after a night of clubbing, they stuck to her eyeballs and she had to go to the hospital to get them removed. now she can only wear glasses.

I knew someone who developed an eye infection (she realized it when pus was dribbling out of her eyes) and she was told if it was left unchecked she could have gone blind. She was wearing those 30-day lenses that you are supposed to be able to leave in. WebMD says that cleaning lenses with tap water instead of saline can lead to blindness because tap water has bacteria in it. Here's the WebMD article regarding caring for your lenses:
http://www.webmd.com/content/article/63/71980.htm

More Questions and Answers

The consumer health information on youqa.com is for informational purposes only and is not a substitute for medical advice or treatment for any medical conditions.
The answer content post by the user, if contains the copyright content please contact us, we will immediately remove it.

What can happen if you wear contacts for a long time without taking them out?

Health Resources