How Bad Is It Really to Open Your Eyes Underwater When Swimming?
It can be a teensy bit embarrassing to whip out a pair of goggles when swimming as an adult, especially if you’re among friends who can confidently open their eyes underwater in a lake or pool. Yelling, “Hang on a minute!” while scrambling to slip the tight band around your head and accidentally snapping the plastic cups too hard against your face feels decidedly un-sexy.
But even if it seems unsightly, it’s time to bring goggle-wearing back, especially if yours currently lies underneath dusty boxes of high school memorabilia in the closet.
While you may not feel any immediate pain from opening your eyes underwater, this doesn’t mean your eyes are in the clear from any damage. “There’s no safe body of water that you can open your eyes underwater and have no risk of infection or irritation or redness,” says Danielle Richardson, OD, an optometrist in Los Angeles, California.
Even if you’ve trained yourself to see underwater without goggles since you were a wee tot, experts strongly urge using them every time you’re splashing around in some body of water. Ahead, they outline the risks to your eyes and what to do if your eyes are exposed to these water sources, particularly if you wear contacts.
What are the risks of opening your eyes underwater?
Opening your eyes in untreated water, like that of lakes, rivers, ponds or the ocean, isn’t advisable if you’re not wearing eye protection. It can leave you with eye irritation, redness, dryness, and even blurred vision, Dr. Richardson says. You can develop an eye infection, like conjunctivitis, from bacteria, viruses, sewage, or pollution debris floating in the water.
No matter how clean and clear the water looks, the risk is very real and very present. All water sources, including tap water, contain an amoeba called Acanthamoeba, says Diane Hilal-Campo, MD, a board-certified ophthalmologist in Oakland, New Jersey, and founder of twenty/twenty beauty. Acanthamoeba can cause an eye infection called acanthamoeba keratitis, which is rare but can lead to permanent visual impairment or blindness.
Ocean water has the added feature of having a higher concentration of salt compared to your tears, which means your eyes can experience stinging and irritation from this, Dr. Richardson says. There’s also a risk of getting mild corneal abrasions from floating debris, like sand.
What about swimming pools? If they’re being disinfected and cleaned on a regular basis, does this mean you don’t have to worry about the possibility of infections? Not quite. While the microbial load may be lower in a pool treated with chlorine and, at times, bromine, the risk isn’t completely eliminated, according to Dr. Richardson. Not only that, but the chlorine itself can be very irritating to your eyes and cause redness.
“You never know exactly how much chlorine is in a pool. It could be over-chlorinated or under-chlorinated,” Dr. Hilal-Campo says. “Even if it’s at the ideal chlorination level, some people’s conjunctiva—the thin membrane that protects your eye—still gets irritated and they have allergic reactions when they open their eyes.”
This can happen even if your skin doesn’t have an allergic reaction, so it’s best not to risk it. The allergic reaction is characterized by swollen eyelids, redness, burning, blurred vision, and/or leaking discharge—not fun at all!
Additionally, if people have peed in the pool, that can change the pH of the pool to be more acidic, which can “really burn and irritate your eyes,” Dr. Hilal-Campo says.
How to swim underwater with your eyes open safely
Both Dr. Richardson and Dr. Hilal-Campo emphasize the importance of wearing goggles whenever you plan to do an activity that involves opening your eyes underwater. It’s “the only way to comfortably and safely open your eyes underwater,” Dr. Richardson says. Goggles have come a long way since the ’90s, with options that embed ultraviolet light protection or eye prescriptions in them, Dr. Hilal-Campo adds.
If you’re not planning to submerge your face underwater at all, it may be okay to go goggle-free. But you’ll need to prevent splashing or rubbing the water into your eyes as stringently as you possibly can and ensure that you’re rinsing your eyes with the proper method afterward if any water does sneak in, Dr. Richardson says. (More on this below!)
“There’s no safe body of water that you can open your eyes underwater and have no risk of infection or irritation or redness.” —Danielle Richardson, OD
What to do if you *really* need to open your eyes without goggles
Dropped something on a lakebed and feeling around for it with your toes just not cutting it? If you really must peer underwater without goggles, aim to do it for the shortest period of time possible. This is what Dr. Richardson advises her clients who are surfers or who participate in water sports.
If you ever find yourself in a situation where droplets may have seeped into your eyes, “the recommendation is to use a preservative-free artificial tear afterward to flush out the eyes,” Dr. Richardson says. These tear drops can be bought over-the-counter at a pharmacy without a prescription. “You definitely want to make sure you’re using those to flush out anything that’s present, to provide lubrication, and to re-moisturize the eye.”
Dr. Hilal-Campo advises using the preservative-free artificial tears once every hour, for about six hours. Any irritation, redness, blurriness, or dryness from opening your eyes underwater tend to resolve following the use of artificial tears, Dr. Richardson says. But if any irritation persists after using it for six hours, make an appointment to see an eye doctor. The advice differs if you were wearing contacts. In that situation, see an eye doctor ASAP if you notice any irritation, redness, blurriness, or discomfort.
What if you don’t have artificial tears on hand—can you just flush your eyes out with clean water? “All kinds of water, the kind you drink and the kind you swim in, can have bacteria in it, so you want to make sure that you’re using something that’s been made and designed specifically for the eye, so that you can eliminate that risk of bacterial infection,” Dr. Richardson says.
What to consider if you wear contacts
Contact lens wearers are at higher risk of infections, according to Dr Hilal-Campo. “The contact lenses themselves will change the ocular surface, and the fact that you wear them every day makes your eyes a little more sensitive to getting infections. Plus, the contact lenses can soak in any bacteria or chlorine in the water, or they can float out of your eye,” she says.
If you’re planning to do a water-based activity with contact lenses on, make sure you’re wearing daily disposable lenses so you can throw them away immediately after leaving the water. You need to chuck the lenses out even if you were diligent in wearing goggles over your eyes the whole time. And if you observe your eye becoming red, irritated, or blurry, talk with your eye doctor ASAP to ensure it’s not a vision-threatening infection, Dr. Richardson advises.
The bottom line
No body of water is safe enough for you to confidently open your eyes in, no matter how clean it may look. Even water sources that are disinfected pose a risk to your vision and eye health from their use of chemicals. Time to dredge up the goggles you bought years ago, make good on those intentions to use them, and start snapping, securing, then swimming.