if you wear contact lenses is it possible to scuba dive?

Answer 1

Don't wear contacts diving. Dislodging one underwater is not like on the surface. You won't be getting it back in. It's also possible that as you gas off, on ascent, that a bubble will form between it and your eye.
If you need corrected vision, your best bet is to buy a mask with your precsription. You can go into any dive shop, try on masks, find the one that fits best and is in your budget and have the shop send it out for a lens grinding.

Answer 2

Absolutely! However I would recommend you use daily disposables if possible, especially if you're going to start an Open Water course, because you WILL be required to flood or/and remove your mask repeatedly during the course.

If you're wearing contacts, there's a chance that you will lose a lens when you have water against your face—this is especially likely if you open your eyes at that point (not required for the exercises, but some people choose to do it because they feel more comfortable being able to 'see' a little). If you have another lens waiting for you on the beach/poolside, this isn't a major setback.

Also, disposables tend to be softer (i.e. more comfortable) and more gas-permeable, although it should be pointed out that this isn't really an issue for holiday sport diving (gas bubbles forming under the lens is really only an issue for extreme technical diving).

If you don't fancy the idea of wearing contacts underwater, you could look at getting your prescription put into your mask. There are 3 methods for doing this, that I know of:
(1) It is possible to buy prescription lenses for some brands of mask (not all brands, though—ask at your local diveshop), if you have a relatively simple myopia (i.e. no astigmatism, etc.). The prescription lenses tend to be expensive (the more powerful, the higher the price), but less so than custom lenses
(2) An optician can grind custom lenses for your mask—this works for most prescriptions, but it's not cheap (also, you need to have a mask which allows lens removal and replacement without cracking the frame, see (1))
(3) An optician can make 'stick-on' lenses that are glued to the inside of a plain glass mask lens (works with any prescription, on any mask, but doesn't look great—my wife has one like this, but she doesn't like it much)

If your prescription is not strong (i.e. low dioptre values), you might not need correctives at all—underwater visibility is generally more limited than on land (5m is OK, 10m is good, 30m is fantastic)! I have –4 in my left eye, –1 in my right, and used a plain glass mask for years without any problems, even as a working diveguide/instructor. I never got along with contact lenses on land, so I never tried diving with them.

I finally switched to an 'off-the-peg' prescription mask while working for a divecentre that sold one of the brands whose lenses could be changed, because I got the mask cheap (the lenses were another story, though)! I have to say, I much prefer diving the prescription mask (suddenly I was finding a lot more well-camouflaged critters than I did before!), and I'm very careful not to lose it!

Answer 3

Yes. It is not a problem. Diddy's advice is on track. Go with a disposable lense, cause there is a chance that you might lose one. I have been diving for years, and wearing contacts the whole time, and have never lost one or had one dislodge. If one did happen to dislodge, take off your mask, keep your other eye closed, flush it out, put mask back on, continue diving (Obviously vision will be odd). Don't worry about gas bubbles building up behind it either.
The perscription mask are an alternative, but it will restrict the selection of mask that will be available to you, and will cost more. The biggest problem with perscription mask, is the fact if you lose it out diving, or forget it, then you can't simply borrow someones spare mask. Also if it is lost at the surface, and you can't see the dive boat in the distance, that could be a problem.

Take a spare pair with you diving, and when you do the classes where you take off your mask to practice clearing, don't where any for that dive.

Good luck and dive safe.

Answer 4

I've been wearing contacts for 26 years and always scuba dive with them in. I wear soft contacts and have never had any problems. During my open water certification, we had to flood our mask, and take off all of our gear at about 30 feet down, including mask. I simply closed my eyes and went through the exercise with my eyes closed until I put my mask back on and emptied the water from it by pointing my face towards the surface and blowing air out of my nose in the mask until it was empty, then opened my eyes. It takes practice, but is not an issue. I occasionally flood my mask to clear it while diving if it fogs up.

Answer 5

Diver who wish to wear contact lenses while diving should ask their ophthalmo optometrists to prescribe "soft" contact lenses. "Hard" lenses or rigid gas-permeable the other two commonly prescribed types of lenses have been found to sometimes cause symtoms of eye pain and blurred vision during and after dives, in which the diver accumulates a significant inert gas load. These symptoms occur as result of gas forming between the cornea and the contact lens.

Answer 6

You can also order the "glass" of the face mask with the prescription; see a sporting goods store and ask. Or, ask your ophthalmologist. Contact lenses are sort of OK for snorkeling... not recommended for diving deep waters, really.

Answer 7

The problem would be if you got an eye infection. You're not even supposed to wear them to the swimming! Lots of bad bacteria about, get trapped in lenses.

Answer 8

weel im a certified scuba diver and i was told that wasnt best to go cuz if ur mask gets flooded it can mess up ur lenses or lose it in the water u get a persicption mask my aunt has one and has no complains

Answer 9

Yes, but it is not recommended due to infection risks - If you aren't into diving yet, don't go to the expense of a prescription mask until you know if it is for you or not.

Answer 10

Yes! You can have scuba masks adapted to whatever vision problems you might have.