Contact lenses change eye bacteria, may encourage infection. While some might grimace at the idea of putting anything on their eyeballs, people have been using contacts in the place of glasses for years. But new research out this week has revealed that inserting them onto your eyes may be changing the bacteria that live there. “In the study, the surface of the eye in the people who wore contact lenses had triple the proportion of certain bacteria species, on average, compared with the people in the study who did not wear the lenses, researchers found. Moreover, the researchers found differences in the composition of the bacterial community on the surface of people’s eyes. In the people who wore contact lenses, this composition more closely resembled the bacteria on the individuals’ eyelids, as compared to the nonwearers. The study included nine people who wore contacts and 11 who did not.” While the change in bacteria is necessarily harmful, the researchers point out that changing which groups live where could make the eyes more susceptible to infection and may explain why those who wear contacts end up with more eye infections than those who don’t.

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