Stop right there !! Don't Use a Cheap Box Lens, You Can Risk Blindness

Starting from easy opportunities such as irritation to the possibility that is so fatal, namely blindness. On contact lens wear on th. third, problems and complaints usually begin to appear. Research scientists from the University of the Institute of Tropical Diseases and Public Health of the Canary Islands, University of La Laguna have been the most recent time on 153 contact lens problems, some 90 problems one of which did not signal a sign of infection.

Although there is no sign of infection, in fact some 65, 9% of the lens is contaminated with pathogenic acanthamoeba and 30% of amoeba are identified as pathogens. Acanthamoeba is a type of protozoa that is commonly identified in soil and is often found in clean water. This species generally consumes bacteria that can cause infections in humans.

Not only in the world, eye problems due to the use of contact lenses in Indonesia are also beginning to appear. One of the ophthalmologists from Graha Amerta Regional Hospital Dr. Soetomo, Dr. Hendrian D. Soebagyo, Spm admitted that specifically for the patients he did, there were at least 50% of patients who experienced eye problems because their contact lenses were contaminated by amoeba. Middle 1% of patients experience severe problems that result in permanent blindness.

"There are three patients that I deal with blindness due to the use of contact lenses that are not suitable," said Dr. Hendrian who also practices at Siloam Hospital in Surabaya.

Still according to Hendrian, although there is no exact data on how many patients are experiencing problems due to contact lens wear, the number of problems is always becoming more.

"The most frequent complaint cases are eye irritation due to the ignorance of the patient in wearing contact lenses properly and the surrounding knowledge to make contact lens protection," he said.

Hendrian explained that the irritation problem could easily be recovered through the whole step. However, many infection problems due to contact lens use leave a brush or a scar on the cornea. For easy brushes in the form of nebulae, for the middle of the macular shape, in the middle the heavy brushes are in the shape of lecoma and have disturbed the patient's view. In addition, the form of lecoma is also clearly visible to the eye because it is not thin and thus disturbs the view of the patient, even can also also cause blindness.

Other effects of using decorative contact lenses, continued Hendrian, namely conjunctivitis or inflammation of the mucous membranes, allergies, swelling, and damage to the cornea of ​​the eye. This kind of thing causes a decrease in vision, and makes the eyes more sensitive to light.

"If the infection has caused blindness, there is no drug or surgery that can be done except cratoplasty or corneal transplantation," he said. To do cratoplasty, Hendrian explained, it is not easy, because waiting for corneal donors also takes time.

In addition, even though the corneal transplant surgery runs smoothly, there is always a chance of the body's rejection of the cornea. "Most patients use contact lenses only for cosmetics, they don't think about the risks," he said.

Hendrian recommends that prospective contact lens users should pay attention to many things. Like weighing whether the use of contact lenses has many advantages over the disadvantages. Does he have a story of allergies, whether the scope of work in contact with dust or not. Although working in the room, if the patient is always attacked by a lot of dust, better not