Wearing contact lenses after cataract surgery

Many people are affected by cataracts, mainly because of the ageing of the eye.
However, this condition can be treated by a surgical operation carried out in a clinic or hospital.
But what about wearing your contact lenses after a cataract surgery?

All about cataract and its surgery

Cataracts, which mainly affect people over the age of 65, can affect one or both eyes and have a significant impact on eyesight.
The condition causes a variable reduction in visual acuity that can even lead to total blindness.
Cataracts correspond to a loss of transparency in the crystalline, which is a biconvex lens positioned behind the iris.
This opacification of the crystalline lens, which prevents the eye from adapting properly to distances, is mainly due to the ageing of the eye.
However, other causes such as excessive smoking, diabetes, too much myopia or overexposure to the sun, can lead to cataracts earlier in life.
In addition to reduced vision, cataracts can also lead to glare, double vision or loss of contrast.
Surgery is necessary to treat a cataract and prevent it from worsening.
This is one of the most common operations, with hundreds of thousands performed each year.
Carried out under local anesthesia and on an outpatient basis, cataract surgery is quick and generally painless.
The operation involves the insertion of an intraocular implant to replace the opacified part of the crystalline lens.

Conditions for wearing contact lenses after cataract surgery

People who wear soft contact lenses should avoid wearing them from the day before the operation and 48 hours before if they are rigid.
In fact, a strict protocol must be followed before the operation so that you arrive on the operating table with your eyes rested and disinfected.
A few hours after the operation, you can go home, but you must rest for the first few hours.
However, you must continue to wear the protective shell that was placed over your eye after the operation.
A cataract operation is not refractive surgery to correct your ametropia.
Visual correction may therefore still be necessary after the operation.
Just like prescription glasses, contact lenses can still be worn after cataract surgery.
However, your ophthalmologist or eye surgeon will tell you how long to wait before wearing contact lenses again.
Wearing contact lenses from the first few days after the operation is dangerous since the eye has not yet completely healed and can therefore become infected, or even suffer a post-operative complication.
What's more, your old contact lenses will generally no longer be suited to your new eyesight, as the operation has modified your visual acuity.
It will therefore be necessary to change for a new pair that are better suited to your new vision, after carrying out a new visual test.
To carry out this new visual check up, a period of several weeks should be allowed to elapse to ensure that the eye has completely healed.
Finally, the hygiene rules for wearing contact lenses will need to be strictly observed to protect your newly operated eyes as much as possible.