Contact lens fitters and gloves..

[Canadian]

Hi there,
Wondering if any of you who insert contacts into patients eyes wear gloves? It has been something I have been thinking about, and something unheard of in my area. What do you do if you are fitting someone with Hepatitis C, or what do you do if you simply don't know if a person has any disease?

[Ory]

The risk of contracting something from someone's eye via unbroken skin is extremely low. As long as your CL fitter is washing his/her hands before and after you should have no problem.


I can't imagine manipulating a soft lens while wearing gloves would be all that easy. You'd also better be sure the gloves are latex free.

[Diane]

I have found that disposable finger cots are easier to wear and still manipulate soft contact lenses, as well as gas permeable lenses than gloves. They just fit better. If you wear gloves, make sure that you wear very well fitting gloves.

For those of us who have been around a while, we learned to handle lenses without gloves, but a large percentage of the younger crowd are learning to handle them with gloves or finger cots. As a matter of fact in COA accredited programs, it is a requirement that either disposable gloves or finger cots are available for use by the students. Both latex and vinyl must be available. I still prefer bare hands, myself, but sometimes situations require barrier protection.

It is a requirement to ask if the patient is allergic to latex. The best barrier is latex as the pores in vinyl are too large to offer protection, so you may as well wear nothing. Proper hand washing is STILL the most effective way to protect yourself and your patient against the spread of germs and viruses. That means a good full lather with standard soap, washing well, and then rinse well.

Diane