Showering with contact lenses increases your risk of eye infection. Tap water, even treated municipal water, contains microorganisms that can cling to your lenses and cause problems ranging from mild irritation to serious, vision-threatening infections. The CDC recommends keeping all types of water away from your contact lenses, including shower water, pool water, and tap water used for rinsing.
Most people who shower with contacts once or twice won’t develop an infection. But each exposure is a roll of the dice, and the consequences of losing that bet can be severe enough that eye care professionals universally advise against it.
Why Shower Water Is a Problem
Tap water is not sterile. Even after municipal treatment, it contains bacteria, amoebas, and other microorganisms that are harmless when they hit your skin or pass through your digestive system but dangerous when they get trapped against your cornea by a contact lens. One of the most concerning organisms is Pseudomonas aeruginosa, a bacterium that thrives in biofilms inside plumbing fixtures, faucets, and showerheads. It’s a recognized cause of keratitis (corneal infection) in contact lens wearers.
The other major threat is Acanthamoeba, a single-celled organism found in fresh water everywhere. Acanthamoeba is highly resistant to chlorine, which means standard water treatment doesn’t eliminate it from your tap water. When shower water splashes onto a contact lens, these organisms can attach to the lens surface. Bacteria already living on the lens provide a food source that helps Acanthamoeba survive and multiply.
How Contact Lenses Make Infection Easier
Your cornea has natural defenses against waterborne organisms, but contact lenses weaken those defenses in two ways. First, wearing lenses causes tiny abrasions on the surface of your cornea. These microscopic scratches expose protein sites on the corneal surface that act like docking stations for Acanthamoeba. The organism latches onto these exposed proteins, then secretes enzymes that kill corneal cells and allow it to burrow deeper into the tissue.
Second, a contact lens acts as a trap. It holds contaminated water against your eye longer than a quick splash would. Without a lens, water hits your eye, your tears dilute it, and you blink it away. With a lens in place, organisms get sandwiched between the lens and your cornea, giving them time to attach and begin colonizing.
What Acanthamoeba Keratitis Looks Like
Acanthamoeba keratitis is rare, affecting an estimated one to two people per million contact lens wearers each year in the United States. But when it does occur, it’s serious. The infection can aggressively affect both eyes and has the potential to cause permanent vision loss. Early symptoms often mimic a more common bacterial eye infection: redness, pain, light sensitivity, blurred vision, and a feeling that something is stuck in your eye. This similarity makes it easy to misdiagnose, which delays proper treatment.
As the infection progresses, it can cause corneal ulceration, swelling, thinning of the cornea, and the formation of a distinctive ring-shaped infiltrate visible on examination. In severe cases, a corneal transplant may be necessary, and the infection can recur even after surgery. Treatment typically takes months, not days, and involves intensive eye drop regimens that are far more demanding than treating a standard bacterial infection.
What to Do If You Already Showered With Contacts
If water touched your lenses during a shower, remove them as soon as possible. If you’re wearing daily disposables, throw them away. If you wear reusable lenses (biweekly or monthly), clean and disinfect them overnight with the appropriate solution before wearing them again. Do not rinse them with tap water.
A single accidental exposure doesn’t mean you’ll get an infection. The risk per incident is low. But if you notice any redness, pain, unusual sensitivity to light, or blurry vision in the hours or days afterward, get your eyes checked promptly. Early treatment for any corneal infection makes a significant difference in outcomes.
Daily vs. Monthly Lenses and Water Risk
You might assume daily disposable lenses are safer around water since you toss them after each use. The reality is more nuanced. Daily disposables haven’t been shown to reduce the overall risk of developing a corneal infection. However, when infections do occur in daily lens wearers, they tend to be less severe. Monthly lens wearers are more likely to develop corneal ulcers compared to daily wearers, likely because reusable lenses accumulate more deposits and biofilm over their lifespan, giving organisms a better foothold.
If you frequently find yourself in situations where your lenses might contact water, daily disposables at least give you the option of immediately discarding a contaminated lens rather than trying to salvage it through disinfection.
How to Protect Your Eyes in the Shower
The simplest approach is to remove your contacts before showering and put them back in afterward. This eliminates the risk entirely. If your vision is poor enough that showering without correction feels unsafe, consider keeping a pair of glasses nearby to wear until you can reinsert your lenses.
If you do keep contacts in, try to keep your eyes closed when water is hitting your face and avoid letting the stream run directly into your eyes. This reduces exposure but doesn’t eliminate it completely, since steam and splashing still introduce water droplets. Keeping your face angled away from the showerhead helps.
The same water precautions apply beyond the shower. Avoid swimming, using a hot tub, or washing your face while wearing contacts. If you swim regularly, prescription goggles are a worthwhile investment. For any water activity, the principle is the same: fresh water and contact lenses don’t mix.