How much does having dry eyes increase your risk of keratitis if you also wear contact? my eye doctor told me to be sure to keep my contacts moist with wetting drops to reduce my chances of getting keratitis. i do, but i'm worried i'm still risking my eye

Depending : Depending on the severity of your dry eye, the keratitis can form earlier or later. If you suffer from any form of dry eye, a good option would be to use preservative free artificial tears throughout the day to lubricate your eyes. If keratitis forms you must stop the usage of contact lenses and consult an eye doctor before using your contacts again.

Any : Any abnormality, dry eyes, inflammation, blepharitis must be treated to prevent problems with contact lenses. The risk is already there just wearing the contacts, and any other issues increases that risk. Usually if keratitis is starting, patients will notice increasing irritation, redness, and foggy or fuzzy vision. If that happens, first remove the contacts, and next call your eye doctor. Surgery to get out of contacts has been shown to have less risk than wearing contact lenses every day. You may want to look into lasik or icl surgery. More info here:.

Use : Use of contact lenses always put the patient at risk of keratitis. Dry eyes increase the risk. Use the contact lense rewetting solution often and minimize the use of contacts.

Depends: Risk of keratitis with dry eye and contact lens wear depends on the severity of the dry eye. With mild dry eye, the risk is minimal but it increases as the severity of the dryness worsens.

It certainly can: It certainly increases the risk. Contact lenses are considered a foreign body to the eye do you need to have some "wiggle room" with your tears so they don't dry out by the end of the day. Punctal plugs, restasis, rewetting drops are all options to improve your tears and decrease your risk of keratitis.