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It’s Pollen Season! How Does It Affect Your Eyes?

pollen season affect eyes

Well, it’s that time of year and if you are anything like our dear Brian here at Thompson Larter Smart Vision Optometry, then you are probably sniffling your way through life with leaking eyes right now!

How Your Eye Health Is Affected

The good ole’ Oxford dictionary tells us that hay fever is an allergy caused by pollen and dust causing the mucous membranes of the eyes and nose to become inflamed, leading to a runny nose and watery eyes. Your eyes and eyelids can become red, itchy and puffy. This is terribly inconvenient at the best of times, let alone when you are a contact lens wearer!

So what should you do? The first option is to wear your glasses instead, though this can be hard as you are constantly taking them on and off to rub at your eyes. If your eyes are sensitive to light and you don’t have prescription sunglasses, then this makes things all the more challenging.

If you really want to stick with your contacts, the best type is your daily contact lenses as these won’t have a build up of protein on them like your fortnightly or monthly lens prescriptions. Your sunnies can go on right over the top and act as a protective barrier when you are outside. However, there is still the risk of pollen and dust getting into your eyes and under the contacts. Furthermore, each rub of the eyes could shift the lenses and disrupt your clarity of vision.

A better option for you just might be Ortho-K. Ortho-K lenses are only worn at night while you are asleep to reshape your cornea and leave with you perfect vision throughout the day. This means nothing in your eyes in the daytime to trap potential irritants and make that hay fever even more frustrating. You can wear sunnies if you need to and there is no need to two sets of glasses everywhere you go.

Pop into a Smart Vision store today to discuss whether Ortho- K could help you kick hayfever in the butt!

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