Showering with contact lenses is one of those habits people assume is harmless — it is not. Water from a shower or tap can carry the parasite behind a serious corneal infection, and that is why the answer to “can you shower with contacts” is no: take them out before you step in. What feels like a one-second convenience is the single most avoidable risk in daily lens wear.
Why Water and Contact Lenses Do Not Mix
Tap and shower water are not sterile, and they should never come into contact with your lenses or your lens case. The water system in your home — pipes, showerheads, storage tanks — can harbour a microorganism for which a contact lens is a perfect surface to cling to.
The problem is worse when the water touches a lens that is already sitting on your eye. A soft lens holds water against the cornea, giving any organism in that water a warm, sheltered place to multiply. This is why optometrists are blunt about it: the lens should only ever meet sterile solution, not water — whether it comes from the shower, a swimming pool, or a tap.
What Can Happen if You Shower With Contact Lenses In
The short-term annoyance is blurry, uncomfortable vision. The real danger is an infection that can damage the cornea and, in serious cases, affect your eyesight long term. The same risk follows any contact lens that touches non-sterile water.
- Redness, aching, or a gritty feeling that does not settle
- Increased light sensitivity
- A cloudy or hazy patch on the cornea
- Eye pain that can be worse than the discomfort of a dry lens
If you notice any of these after water has touched your lenses, the first step is to remove the lenses and stop wearing them. Symptoms that persist or worsen need a professional eye exam — this is general guidance rather than medical advice, and an eye care professional is the right person to assess corneal damage.
Should You Shower With Contact Lenses? What to Do Instead
Take the lenses out before you shower. If that is not possible because the water is about to hit your face, keep your eyes closed and turn your head away from the water stream, then remove and disinfect the lenses as soon as you are out.
Wear glasses for the time you are in the shower, or keep a spare pair of dry lenses and fresh solution at hand. The key habit is separating the lens from any non-sterile water, and that includes the case. Rinse the case with solution rather than tap water, and store the lenses in fresh solution every night, not topped-up old solution.
So the plain answer is clear: you should not shower with contact lenses in. Water is the one thing those lenses should never touch, because the infection it can introduce is far more costly than the few seconds it takes to remove them. If your prescription changes after any eye problem, run your numbers through the vertex lens calculator on vertexlenscalc.com so a new set of lenses is ordered to the correct effective power.
