Can I shower or swim in contact lenses?
Best avoided. Water carries organisms that can adhere to a lens and reach the cornea, and this is one of the recognised routes to the serious infections that contact lens wearers are warned about. If water gets in your eye with a lens in it, remove the lens and discard it if it is disposable.
- Subject
- Glasses & contacts
- Topic
- Contact lens safety
- Kind of question
- Can I…
- Procedures
- Contact lenses
- Last reviewed
- 22 September 2026
This answer explains what the symptom commonly indicates. If it has come on suddenly, or together with pain or loss of vision, seek urgent care rather than waiting for an appointment. This page cannot examine your eye.
In more detail
The risk is small per exposure and the consequence is uncommon, which is exactly why the advice is easy to dismiss and worth keeping. Swimming in goggles with lenses in is the compromise most clinicians accept.
What this answer depends on
- Whether the water is chlorinated, salt or fresh
- Whether the lens is disposable
- Whether you have any break in the surface of the eye
Related guides
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Where this answer sits
It is one of 483 answers in the vision and eye health knowledge base, filed under Glasses & contact lenses in Contact lens safety . The subject page carries the answers either side of it, and the hub is searchable.
Subjects this question touches
The pages that answer the subject behind the question, rather than the question itself.
- Non-surgical option Contact lenses
- Non-surgical option Glasses
- Comparison Glasses vs contact lenses
This information is for educational purposes and does not replace an examination by a qualified eye-care professional.
General answers cannot tell you what is happening in your own eyes. Only an examination by a qualified ophthalmologist can do that.
Sources & further reading
We prefer primary sources. Where a claim comes from a manufacturer, a single study or a regulator, it is labelled as such below.
- EyeSmart: eye health information for the public
Patient-facing material from the largest ophthalmology professional body, covering conditions, tests and treatments outside refractive surgery.
Used for Cross-checking patient-facing explanations of non-refractive eye conditions; Describing what tests such as dilation and OCT involve.
Link checked 23 September 2026