Chances are, if you are one of 35+ million contact lens users in America, you were taught all the basics of proper contact lens hygiene when you first received your prescription. There are probably even better odds that you aren’t following those contact lens hygiene basics you were taught daily.

Millions of contact lens users deal with eye complications every year because they wear their contacts in the pool, don’t take them out when they sleep, or never take them out. It is easy to assume you’ll be fine, but this isn’t true.

Let’s discuss three non-hygienic things that you most likely have done as a contact lens user at some point.

Let Tap Water Come in Contact with Contacts

This can pose a serious issue for your eyes health. Tap water is not salty like your eyes natural tears, so your contact lenses end up absorbing more of it and swelling.

Tap water—while safe enough to drink—isn’t sterile and therefore can contain a lot of microorganisms.

This creates a double whammy effect because as your contact lens swells, it pulls on your cornea and can cause microscopic openings that allow those microorganisms to get into your eye and cause possible infection.

This is why you should absolutely NOT shower or swim with your contact lenses in.

No Contact Lens Solution, So Use Saliva in Emergency Situations

The saliva in your mouth is ridden with bacteria that can be quite damaging in any place outside of your mouth.

If you want to take out your contacts and there isn’t contact lens solution readily available, then you should take them out anyway.

To prepare for these emergencies, have a small travel bottle of contact lens solution on your person at all times.

Re-use Contact Lens Solution to Cut Costs

The purpose of contact lens solution is to clean bacteria and debris off of your contact lenses. These bacteria and debris don’t go away, so if you choose to re-use that dirty contact lens solution you are essentially marinating your contact lenses in filth.

Here is an analogy for you, as your car runs the oil gets dirtier and dirtier and dirtier until you need to do an oil change. Re-using contact lens solution is like taking that old dirty oil you just took out of your car and deciding to put it back into the car with some new oil mixed in.