Can you scuba dive wearing contacts?

Answer 1

AnswerYes, you can, but you can also lose contacts underwater, just like anywhere else. If your mask floods, keep your eyes closed until you clear your mask.

Contacts are okay as long as they are the soft kind. If you wear hard lenses it is not advisable to wear them at pressure, or while Scuba diving.

Subjective Answer

I am reporting in, my instructor wears contacts for tech dives to 250' plus, and I have worn contacts for 52 dives to depths of 125' without issue. Many modern soft contacts are 'gas permeable' meaning gas can escape through them. I decided to play it safe prior to getting contacts for diving and went to a full blown ophthalmologist (not just some fool at a glasses store). He said that it wouldn't be an issue at all.

Addition

I am a scuba instructor for more than 25 years with thousands of dives as well as being a tech diver that has made multiple 400 foot dives. I too wear contacts and have never had a problem. I wear "hard" lenses referred to as rigid gas permeable lenses. Gas exchange does occur and there are no known problems. There is also no pressure differential where you can't equalize a contact lens ... otherwise they would be popping off during an ascent - which simply does not occur. I have only had a lens come out twice during my years of diving and my mask has always trapped the lens for me.

Answer 2

AnswerAbsolutely. It's possible, though, as with any other physical activity, to lose a conatact. In the fifteen years I've been scuba diving and snorkeling, I've lost a lens only once, when a wave at the surface hit me squarely in the face. If you're worried, though, and depending on your vision, it's helpful to know that the refraction of water often allows someone with poor vision to see better underwater, so you may find you don't need the lenses as much.

Correction

Most of the time you can snorkel safely with contacts (barring the risk of losing them). However, in extreme cases (where you snorkel a lot, very deep, or both) you can interfere with gas exchange (nitrogen in this case) over the surface of the cornea, and in very extreme cases you can seriously damage the cornea as micro-bubbles form.

For most snorklers, this is a very unlikely problem. However, it shoud be noted that groups of pearl divers in the South Pacific actually got the bends while free-divig for pearls (90' dives, 4 minutes surface interval between dives, lots and lots of repetitiion).

As studies have not conclusively investigated gas exchange across the cornea, I would personally avoid diving with contacts. Note that it's easy and inexpensive to get almost any prescription lens sized for your mask.

User:Cjonb23:08, 2 Jun 2008 (UTC)

Fine for surface snorkelingI have been snorkeling for decades (gave up diving) and on the surface, gas exchange is no more an issue than when standing on the shore.

The mask's water/glass/air interface provides a bit of magnification, so myopic people like me can snorkel ok without contacts, but I have found that wearing the contacts makes quite a difference in finding those well-camouflaged fish, especially if the reef is more than a couple meters down.

The advent of "disposable" contacts (it used to be $60 to replace one contact!) makes snorkeling with contacts stress-free. Just remember to bring your back-up glasses as snorkeling is a water activity and increases the odds of losing one.

Answer 3

Yes. If you are very myopic there is no point in diving without contacts because you won't see anything. You can't wear glasses under a scuba mask.

Answer 4

Yes you can. But just make sure not to open your eyes underwater without the googles on, as your contacts could fall out