If you suspect an eye infection from your contact lenses, the most important step is removing your lenses immediately and seeing an eye care provider as soon as possible. Contact lens infections affect the cornea, the clear front surface of your eye, and can cause permanent vision damage if treatment is delayed. These infections are treatable, but they require prescription medication, not home remedies.
What to Do Right Away
Take your contacts out. This is the single most important first step. Once the lenses are out, switch to your backup glasses and call your eye doctor. If you don’t have glasses with a current prescription, the CDC recommends keeping a pair on hand for exactly this situation.
Don’t throw the lenses away. Your doctor may want to culture them to identify the specific organism causing the infection, which helps guide treatment. Place them in their case with solution and bring them to your appointment. Avoid rubbing your eyes, and don’t put a new pair of contacts in.
If you’re experiencing severe eye pain, sudden vision changes, or extreme light sensitivity, treat it as an emergency. Corneal ulcers, which are open sores on the cornea caused by infection, need immediate care. According to Cleveland Clinic, delays in treatment make vision loss and even blindness significantly more likely.
How These Infections Are Treated
Most contact lens infections are bacterial, and the standard treatment is antibiotic eye drops. Your doctor will typically start with broad-spectrum antibiotic drops that cover a wide range of bacteria, since lab results identifying the exact organism take time. A single type of antibiotic drop from the fluoroquinolone class has been shown to work as well as combination therapy for most cases.
How often you use the drops depends on how severe the infection is. For mild cases, your doctor may prescribe drops several times a day. For serious infections, especially those involving a large area of the cornea or deep tissue, the initial treatment can be intensive: drops every 30 to 60 minutes around the clock, sometimes starting with a loading dose every 5 to 15 minutes for the first hour. This aggressive early treatment is critical for stopping the infection before it damages deeper layers of the cornea.
Even as the infection improves, you’ll need to continue using the drops at least three to four times daily. Dropping below that frequency is considered subtherapeutic and can promote antibiotic resistance, making the infection harder to treat.
If the infection doesn’t respond to initial treatment, your doctor may switch to stronger, specially compounded antibiotic drops or combination therapy targeting specific bacteria. The two most common culprits in contact lens infections are Pseudomonas aeruginosa, a bacterium found in water and soil, and Staphylococcus aureus, which lives naturally on your skin.
Parasitic and Fungal Infections
Not all contact lens infections are bacterial. Acanthamoeba keratitis is a rare but serious parasitic infection strongly linked to contact lens use, particularly when lenses come into contact with water (showering, swimming, or rinsing lenses with tap water). This infection is notoriously difficult to treat. It often requires months of therapy, sometimes longer, and involves a combination of oral and topical medications rather than simple eye drops alone.
Fungal corneal infections are less common but also more complicated to manage than bacterial ones. One important thing to know: steroid eye drops, which reduce inflammation, are specifically contraindicated in fungal and bacterial corneal infections. Steroids suppress your immune response and interfere with wound healing, which can make an active infection dramatically worse. Never use leftover steroid eye drops for a red or irritated eye without a doctor’s guidance.
Symptoms That Signal an Emergency
Some symptoms mean you should seek care the same day, not wait for a regular appointment:
- Severe eye pain that doesn’t improve after removing your lenses
- Blurred vision or vision loss
- Extreme light sensitivity that disrupts your daily activities
- Heavy discharge from the affected eye
- Worsening symptoms despite already being on treatment
A corneal ulcer is a medical emergency. If you notice a white or grayish spot on your cornea along with any of these symptoms, get to an eye doctor or emergency room quickly.
How Long Recovery Takes
Recovery time depends on the severity of the infection and the type of lenses you wear. Research on corneal recovery after contact lens complications found that soft lens wearers had a median recovery time of about 2 weeks, while hard (rigid gas permeable) lens wearers took a median of nearly 8 weeks. These timelines reflect corneal healing, not just symptom relief.
Your doctor will need to confirm the infection has fully resolved before you can return to wearing contacts. Putting lenses back in too early risks reinfection or further damage to a cornea that hasn’t fully healed. In some cases, your doctor may recommend switching to a different lens type, wearing schedule, or care system to reduce the chance of recurrence.
Preventing Future Infections
Sleeping in your contacts is the single biggest modifiable risk factor. Wearing lenses overnight increases your risk of a corneal infection six to eight times compared to daily wear, even with lenses approved for extended wear. If you occasionally fall asleep in your contacts, that elevated risk still applies.
Beyond sleep habits, a few practices make a meaningful difference. Replace your lens case regularly, since bacteria form a sticky film called a biofilm on case surfaces over time. Never top off old solution in the case; empty it, rub and rinse the case with fresh solution, and let it air dry upside down after each use. Never use tap water, saliva, or any non-sterile liquid on your lenses or case.
Keep water away from your lenses entirely. Remove contacts before swimming, showering, or using a hot tub. Water exposure is the primary route for Acanthamoeba and other environmental organisms to reach your cornea. If your lenses do contact water, remove them, discard that pair if they’re disposable, and monitor for symptoms over the following days.