Can contact lenses cause corneal aging?

There has been a disturbing theory on the Internet: After wearing contact lenses for many years, the cornea is as old as the elderly and can no longer undergo any eye surgery. So, do contact lenses really cause premature aging of the cornea?

For this problem, we should first understand the idea of corneal aging. The human cornea is divided into five layers, endothelial cells are located in the innermost layer of the cornea, is the most important cell layer, it has the role of maintaining osmotic pressure, barrier and protection. The content of endothelial cells is very rich, and because the cells continue to replicate and grow, and realize the replacement cycle of new and old cells through metabolism, the corneal endothelial cells are always maintained within a certain density range.

The so-called corneal aging means that with the increase of age, all functions of the human body will regress, and the density of endothelial cells will also decrease, resulting in a series of problems such as lens opacity, eye fatigue, blurred vision or decreased vision. In general, damage to corneal endothelial cells in adults is irreversible and can cause blindness when severely damaged.

It can be seen that the metabolism of corneal cells is a normal process, and contact lenses do not particularly cause corneal aging. However, if the wrong way of wearing causes the cornea to be hypoxic, it will accelerate the death of endothelial cells, destroy the overall environment in the eye, and cause corneal edema and other eye problems. Or, when people are too rough and hard in the process of picking and wearing, it may also lead to cell layer damage. But the effects are relatively short-lived, if you need eye surgery, just stop wearing contact lenses for a while in advance. Therefore, it is very irresponsible to directly say that contact lenses cause corneal aging.