Can You Wear Contacts in the Shower?
Eye care professionals recommend against wearing contacts in the shower. Water—even clean tap water—can harbor Acanthamoeba and other microorganisms that cause serious eye infections. These organisms can get trapped between the lens and your eye, leading to painful infections that can damage vision. Remove contacts before showering.
Key Takeaways
- Tap water isn't sterile, even if it's safe to drink.
- If water splashes in your eyes while wearing contacts, remove and disinfect the lenses immediately.
- Daily disposable lenses are somewhat safer since you discard them anyway—but the infection risk remains.
Explanation
Tap water isn't sterile, even if it's safe to drink. It can contain microorganisms like Acanthamoeba, a parasite that causes a rare but severe eye infection called Acanthamoeba keratitis. This infection is notoriously difficult to treat and can lead to permanent vision loss.
Contact lenses can absorb water and trap it against your cornea, creating a warm, moist environment where microorganisms thrive. The lens also prevents your natural blinking and tear production from washing these organisms away. Soft lenses are particularly absorbent and risky.
The risk extends to swimming pools, hot tubs, lakes, and oceans—all pose similar contamination risks. If water contact is unavoidable, use daily disposable lenses and throw them away immediately afterward. Prescription swim goggles are a safer option for regular swimmers.
Acanthamoeba keratitis, while rare (affecting roughly 1-2 per million contact lens wearers annually in the US), is devastating when it occurs. Treatment requires months of hourly antimicrobial eye drops, often causes severe pain, and results in permanent vision loss in about 10-15% of cases. Some patients ultimately need corneal transplants. The CDC reports that approximately 85% of Acanthamoeba keratitis cases involve contact lens wearers, with water exposure being the primary risk factor.
Hot tubs and whirlpools pose an even higher risk than showers because warm, aerated water is an ideal breeding ground for both Acanthamoeba and Pseudomonas aeruginosa bacteria. Pseudomonas can cause a fast-moving corneal ulcer that progresses within 24-48 hours. If you notice redness, pain, light sensitivity, or blurred vision after any water exposure while wearing contacts, remove the lenses immediately and see an eye doctor the same day rather than waiting to see if symptoms improve.
Things to Know
- If water splashes in your eyes while wearing contacts, remove and disinfect the lenses immediately.
- Daily disposable lenses are somewhat safer since you discard them anyway—but the infection risk remains.
- Rigid gas-permeable lenses absorb less water but still aren't safe in showers.
- The occasional brief splash is lower risk than full submersion, but the safest approach is removal.
- Scleral lenses (large rigid lenses) create a sealed fluid reservoir over the cornea and are less likely to trap shower water, but manufacturers still recommend removal before water exposure.