Tips to Prevent Your Eyes from Common Eye Infections
Whether it’s viral, bacterial, or fungal, microbes are all around us. While you may clean, clear, and do your best to keep your space and contact with germs to a minimum, you can’t avoid breathing in a cold virus when you get caught in the middle of an uncovered sneeze. Thankfully, there is a lot you can do to avoid getting eye infections like ocular herpes, bacterial blepharitis, and viral conjunctivitis.
Eye infections develop when the germs come into contact with the delicate tissues surrounding our eyes – some disrupt the conjunctiva while others invade the clear front surface of your cornea. An eye infection can leave your eyes red, itchy, in pain, irritating and sensitive but can often be treated by the best ophthalmologist in Mumbai. Here are some measures you can take to prevent eye infections.
- Keep your hands clean
Get into the habit of washing your hands with soap and water, especially before you put on eye drops, contact lenses, or touch your eyes. It is an easy and effective way to reduce your risk of developing an infection. If you are unable to wash your hands, use a clean tissue or sanitizer and rub your hands together till clean.
- Avoid touching your eyes a lot
Keeping your fingers away from your eyes needs to be mastered as a lot of people keep rubbing and touching their eyes a lot – but it’s a good way to prevent an infection. An eye specialist in Mumbai will tell you that excessively rubbing, touching your eyes when they are itchy or blurry can lead to bad eye infections.
- Don’t share your face towels, makeup brushes, and more
Besides laundering washcloths, bath towels, and makeup brushes in hot water, ensure that you don’t lend it to anyone else – especially when they have an eye infection. If you do then the towel needs to be disinfected and washed in hot water before you use it again. The same goes for bedding and pillowcases, let each one have their own set. If you feel like you have an eye infection then visit the nearest ophthalmologist in Mumbai.
- Don’t share your cosmetics
To minimize infections of any kind, never share your personal care items, cosmetics, and other makeup items with anyone. To reduce your risk of contracting ay infection, eye drops, eye makeup, and other eye care applicators should never be shared and need to be cleaned and maintained on a regular basis. Always remove makeup before going to sleep as it increases your risk of developing blepharitis, an inflammation of the eye which causes redness, itchiness, blurry vision, and more.
- Maintain excellent contact lens hygiene
Wearing contacts can increase your chances of developing an eye infection. It’s important that you maintain the highest level of hygiene with your contacts and follow your doctor’s advice. Even the best eye hospital in Mumbai will tell you how important it is to maintain a certain level of cleanliness while wearing contacts. Sleeping in your contact lenses increase your chances of developing a serious corneal infection called microbial keratitis and can boost your eye infection risk.
The Takeaway
The best way to prevent an eye infection is to book regular appointments at your local eye hospital in Mumbai or keep yourself clean to stop it from progressing. Always call your eye doctor if you feel any changes in your vision.