Based on the findings of a study, wearing contact lenses may increase the risk of eye infections, as they transfer microorganisms from the skin to the eye, interfering with the balance of bacteria and thus causing potentially serious infections among some users, according to The Independent.
The surface of the eye of users who wore contact lenses had three times the amount of bacteria, on average, as opposed to users who did not wear contact lenses, according to the study. The bacteria were identified as Methylobacterium, Lactobacillus, Acinetobacter and Pseudomonas.
The research was conducted on a small sample size of nine individuals wearing contact lenses versus 11 non-wearers, taking hundreds of swabs of various parts of the users' eyes.
Lead Researcher Dr. Maria Gloria Dominguez-Bello, from NYU Langone Medical Centre in New York City, said: "Our research clearly shows that putting a foreign object, such as a contact lens, on the eye is not a neutral act," Daily Telegraph reported.
"These findings should help scientists better understand the longstanding problem of why contact lens-wearers are more prone to eye infections than non-lens wearers," Dominguez-Bello added,
The study also found that in both contact lens wearers and non-wearers, the surface of the eye - also referred to as conjunctiva - hosted a more diverse bacteria group than the skin directly beneath the eye. In addition to this, the research also found that the "microbiome" or in simple terms, the microbial ecosystem on the surface of the eye of lens-wearers closely resembled the bacteria found on the skin than of the eye, according to the Irish Examiner.
