What Does Breathing Mean When Talking About Your Contacts or Eyes?
“Let your eyes breathe.”
“These lenses allow your eyes to breathe.”
“Wear breathable contacts!”
Everyone knows that breathing is important, dare I say essential, to life…but what does it mean when we talk about our eyes breathing? Do your eyes breathe like your nose does? What is the advantage to having breathable contact lenses?
Well, I asked my optometrist to explain the breathing concept as it relates to our eyes, and here’s what I found out:
When a doctor or contact lens manufacturer talks about allowing your eyes to breathe, what he really means is you are allowing your eyes a chance to get oxygen into your cornea. This is important because the only way your cornea gets oxygen is directly from the air.
Other parts of your body are filled with blood vessels that can transfer oxygenated blood to the parts that need it. But, your cornea is clear –and a bunch of blood vessels in there would wreak havoc on your ability to see through it!
The other part of the breathing process, of course, is exhaling. And, in the case of your eyes, the cornea does have a carbon dioxide output that needs to be disposed of. Just like breathing out, the cornea excretes the carbon dioxide back into the air, through your eyes, just the same as your nose does.
Without enough oxygen in the cornea, and without the ability to get rid of the carbon dioxide waste, your eye will suffer. In fact, your cornea can warp, become less transparent, and you may even form new blood vessels on the white of your eye that will grow into the cornea and damage it.
For this reason, contact lens manufacturers have had a challenge over the last several decades to make contact lenses that allowed this breathing process to still take place, even while a lens is blocking your cornea from the air. They have perfected this process through changing what lenses are made of to substances like silicone hydrogel – which allows your eyes to breathe “through” the lens.
Although silicone hydrogel lenses have been approved by the FDA for continuous wear for up to 30 days and nights, most optometrists agree that taking a break – or wearing no contact lenses over night or for a day – is a healthy thing to do to help your eyes get even more oxygen and, thus, allow them to “breathe freely” for some period of time.
If you feel like your eyes are dry, red or irritated by your contact lenses, talk to your America’s Best optometrist about trying a different brand of more “breathable” contact lenses.
