Though the Internet is a convenient source of information about practically anything, people should be careful about where they get information about contact lenses on the Web, say two eye doctors.
In an article titled “Surprising ‘Facts’ Your Patients Learn on the Internet,” published in the April 2010 issue of Optometric Management magazine, optometrists Ernie Bowling, OD, (Gadsden, Ala.) and Gregg E. Russell, OD, (Marietta, Ga.) say that contact lens wearers seeking reliable information about contact lenses and lens care online are likely to encounter plenty of myths, half-truths and misinformation on many websites.
Online forums can be particularly dubious, since people who post messages typically are not eye doctors and often provide information that is erroneous and even dangerous.
For example, Drs. Bowling and Russell found online posts that included recipes for making homemade saline solution for contact lens storage, despite the fact that storing lenses overnight in saline solution greatly increases the risk of contact lens-related eye infections, including a potentially blinding infection called Acanthamoeba keratitis.
For accurate information about contact lenses online, the authors recommend the websites of major contact lens manufacturers.
Other trusted sites for useful and reliable contact lens information mentioned by Drs. Bowling and Russell include:
- AllAboutVision.com
- British Contact Lens Association
- American Optometric Association’s Contact Lens Section
- U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s Contact Lens Section
The authors advised optometrists to remember that the best sources of unbiased, professional information about contact lenses for patients are the eye doctors themselves.
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