Holi 2023: Precautions to follow if you wear contact lenses

Holi 2023: The fun-filled Holi festival is here! The celebrations are usually filled with gulal, colours, water guns and water balloons. Amid all the excitement, we might just ingest colours through body parts exposed, including our eyes. Colours or other material often manage to get into our eyes impacting this extremely sensitive organ. Those wearing contact lenses should know that the lenses absorb Holi colours, and can thereby stick to the lens for long and damage them. And given that most of these colours contain harmful agents like industrial dyes, and alkalis, their impact on the eyes can be severe.

Precautions you should take if you wear contact lenses

1. It is always preferred to take off your contact lenses before joining in the Holi celebrations. If it's unavoidable, you can use disposable ones. Once the celebration is over, wear a new set of lenses.

2. Don't allow any Holi powder colour (gulal) to get into your eyes. In case, while playing with colours, it goes into your eyes, wash them immediately. This will bring relief from irritation caused by colours.

3. If you have forgotten to take your lenses off and at the slightest feeling that the eyes may have taken in hazardous chemicals from the colours, you must discard the lenses immediately and get new ones.

4. Before playing Holi, you could consider applying cold cream or oil around your eyes which would help get the colour scraped off easily from the outer surface of the eyes.

5. Try wearing a pair of sunglasses while playing Holi. It will protect your eyes from both dry and coloured water.

6. If you choose to wear your glasses, they will also provide a mechanical barrier, protecting your eyes from both the powder colours and the liquid ones.

7. If you experience burning or redness of the eyes, get in touch with your doctor immediately. Don't rub your eyes.