My contacts are stuck to my eyes!! I swear Anthony is sick of me telling him this.  Yes, I know I’m the optom’s wife and I could get ortho-k (maybe he says, as my prescription is high) and should attempt trying it…and Yes I have really dry eyes which is why the lenses get stuck to them, particularly on hot days…and Yes, I’m vain and don’t like wearing glasses when I go out even if they are trendy frames.  But…I just don’t know.  I know I’m the promoter of our product and service, but I’ll be honest, this will be my journey of whether I should or shouldn’t get it done- am I vain enough? 

Let me think, I’ll wear high heals even if they kill my feet so much so that the next day I walk weirdly, but the shoes looked spectacular and matched my lippy.  I admit to wearing extra support style undergarments to even out post baby bits.  I won’t leave the house without my hair or make up done, and Thursday and Fridays nights are usually home facials and nail polish nights with the gals on You Tube.  I don’t want botox though- my brother’s already started and he’s just 30yo (prevention is apparently the key, even though we have good genes for not looking wrinkly)- so therefore I’m not really that vain I suppose.  But then, I wax and fake tan, I’m considering eyelash extensions (don’t tell hubby thought) cos they look fantastic on my beautician.

But, can I do the contacts all night?  If my prescription wasn’t so high..mmm. I can hear my baby-boomer-I’m-from-the-70s-mum saying in my head dont’ be so vain, but I really like the idea of not having to go through the trauma of contacts getting stuck to my eyes after wearing them all day (I wear dailies soft lenses).

Well, I’ll let you know when I’ve thought about it again or if we’ve run out of thera tears to rehydrate my eyes at 11pm!

I came across a site http://www.contactlensheadlines.com/myths.htm which has an interesting list of 10 myths about contact lenses which I thought I’d review for our posts.  One of the myths which stood out was:

 Contact lenses can get stuck to my eye. Remember the old eye injury urban legend about the welder who accidentally fused contacts to his eyes? It’s just a tall tale, as are other stories about contacts becoming “attached.”

Although contact lenses can’t fuse to your eye as described in the myth, they can become really, really difficult to remove due to lack of moisture or dry eyes.  I suffer from getting dry eyes with contact lenses, particularly in hot weather.  I have tried many brands and types, now I wear dailies and not all the time, mainly when it’s hot or when I go out. 

But it’s the same thing, they get dry by the end of the day and stuck , and I swear Anthony is sick of me telling him this- patiruclarly as he’s usually the one who has to douse my eyes with thera tears and get them off.

 Yesterday I even tried to give new brand of silicone lenses another go after 5 years (we thought technology may have advanced differently over the past few years) but I got an allergic reaction again to them after 15 minutes of wear, and I didn’t take them out until the end of the day.  My eyes are still red and irritated today.

Anyway, I think the example given for this myth related more to fusion rather than getting stuck, which with contact lenses is temporary.  Anyone else had this hassle with regular contact lenses?

It doesn’t matter how trendy your glasses frames are, they don’t quite stay on your face when you’re swimming or dancing or kicking a ball around.  Daytime contact lenses may be an alternative, however some people find them uncomfortable, they get dry eyes or they’re scared of losing them in the water or on the playing field.

If this sounds like you, and you want to stay active without the hassle of glasses or daytime contact lenses, try ortho-k.   Imagine no more glasses and no contact lenses for outdoor and indoor sporting and recreational activities like polo, yachting, fishing, soccer, football, dancing, ballet, swimming, scuba diving, surfing, diving, extreme sports.

No more glasses no more daytime contact lenses with ortho-k

Ladies, if you’ve ever needed an excuse to buy new eyemakeup, here it is!  Out of date cosemetics can cause eye infection.  I came across an article for my tweets which described the lack of PAO (period after opening) symbols on eye cosmetics such as mascaras, eyeliner pencils, liquid eyeliners.    They explain that ‘ an area where people have had eye problems is eye products.  I do think PAOs are a help here as eye-area cosmetics can become infected and cause problems for the eyes.’

I assume eye liner gel in pots (my personal fave) and eye shadows are included in this also.  Apparently eye cosmetics have a shelf life of 6 months, so I ask you, when was the last time you bought new eye shadow?  Blue mascara may be retro, but not from it’s original packaging in the 80′s (yes I remember wearing it when I was 13yo  somewhere in the 80′s ;p ). 

While I have a penchant for youtube make up tutorials and the beauty industry, I also would remind girls not to share eyemakeup (or lipstick for that matter) and reduce the risk of eye infections such as conjunctivitus.  I have also seen on a few tutorials on you tube that you can use your lipstick on your eyes, and your eyeliners on your mouth as a lip liner, and your lip liner on your eyes.  Just make sure that you sharpen your pencils before you change their application to a new facial area, and always use new applicators when you use you lip products on your eyes and vice versa.

So take advantage of those new year sales on cosmetics and reduce eye infection.

We’ve been told by our optom that we must clean our hands before handling our contacts, but how clean are your hands-really?  Firstly, clean hands in this case, means washed and dried hands with a disposable towel and turn the tap off with a paper towel, this process stops the spread of infection as germs love the water left on any surface.

 But what about sanitising hand gels?  These can be a great alternative to getting dry hands from washing with soap and water, but are they safe for handling your contact lenses?

While the main purpose for using sanitisng gels is to ensure that your ands are guaranteed to be dry, here are some of the risks:

1) the evaporative alcohol from alcohol based sanisters can be transferred to your contact lens, causing eye irritation. Also, alcohol based sanisters can cause skin irritation with prolonged use.

2) use a sanitiser with over 60% alcohol act as an effective disinfectant.

3) make sure your hands have no visible dirt before you use an sanitiser- so wash and dry your muddy/dirty hands first then use the sanitiser to sanitise to the germs remaining after you’ve cleaned the gunk off!

4) Pump soaps are better than bar soap.  If you can get it, use a regular pump soap  rather than antibacterial soap pumps that build resistance to germ breeding and it doesn’t kill all the real nasties anyway.

5) Chlorhexidine products used in hospitals are best for santising hands (make sure it’s not on your lens or it will sting as it is toxic to the cornea).

So whether you are using soft contact lenses, dailies, ortho-k overnight lenses- you still need to ensure your hands are clean so as not to transfer germs into your eyes, which can cause infection resulting in further discomfort and irritation.

These four C’s, camping, contact lenses, cleanliness or get complications are an interesting combination.  And they all relate to the issue of cleanliness of your hands and contact lenses, to reduce symptoms of irritation, allergy, discomfort or other horrors you may have seen on your optometrist’s wall.

I remember I was really scared to get contact lenses for a while because of those posters of all the eye infections you could get from wearing them, my optom at the time reassured me that that only happened if you didn’t keep good hygienic practices.  Needless to say it took me a year to get over those gross pics.

Anyway…

While it’s holiday time it’s a good time to remind people that if you take your daytime contacts or ortho-k lenses camping, ensure that your hands are clean of dirt before you sanitise them to put into your eye (this way you’re less likely to contaminate your eye and cause irritation or infection from the stuff you touch unintentionally when camping- and that could be anything from animal droppings on your shoes which you touch to put on…I think you get the picture!).    Also, make sure you clean your lenses well after use- rubbing beats rinsing or soaking in solution usually, however Anthony recommends that if you’re camping use dailies as you won’t have to bring along all your solutions and cases- but always remember to wash your hands thoroughly before inserting your lenses.  If you use ortho-k lenses and go camping, then you’ll have to bring all your solutions and maintain hygiene.  Keep all of your optical stuff in a clean, plastic tub with secure seals so no dirt from the outside bush/beach environment can contimate your eye gear.

Personally, after my 3 day adventure in the surf with one pair of monthly contacts that were totally wrecked and torn and unwearable, I would take dailies when going camping or going to beach/ outdoor activities.

One of the most important factors in wearing contact lenses successfully is that they don’t hurt your eyes, and that they give you the feeling of not being there at all.  While technology can develop better materials to make the contact lenses feel less obtrusive in your eye, it is the lack of proper and consistent hygienic maintenance of contact lenses that causes the eyes to become irritated, teary and infected.

Why does this happen? Basically, when contact lenses are inserted into the eye, the body reacts with an immune response to tear anyway, because something foreign is in your eye.  In the tears are proteins to challenge the lens figure out why it’s there.  If your lenses are clean, and I mean clean, then your immune system will settle down and not need to send more proteins and immunoglobulins to fight bacteria and protein build up on the lens, which can cause allergic reactions, discomfort etc.

This is the problem I find with many clients is that they say they clean their lenses and follow the program of contact lens care, but their eyes show a different story.  Irritated eyes from poorly cleaned contact lenses can result in sore red lumps in the eye lids, continual swelling and redness, reduced wear time and discomfort.

If this sounds familiar then here are some options:

1) RUB n RINSE: Proteins and lipids (fats) build up your lenses while in your eyes, this needs to be cleaned off, as any residue can become bacterial and cause reactions in your eyes such as allergy and further infection.  You must remove the proteins immediately from the lens surface, once the lens is out of your eye, and before it goes into the lens case.  This step is important because if you don’t clean the protein off the lens before it denatures (or dies), it hardens onto the lens and causes build up- like a dirty toilet bowl- picture that brown film build up in the bowl- get the picture?

2) Use a hydrogen peroxide based solution which leave no chemical residue in your eye so that you don’t build up an allergy to the product over time.  One I highly recommend to my clients is the newest product called Clariti by Sauflon http://www.sauflon.co.uk/sauflon-synergi.html.

3) Use dailies, one day disposable lenses so there is no cleaning required.

Remember, as soon as you get any irritation from wearing your contact lenses, consult your optometrist.  The information in this blog entry is not prescribed clinical advice, just information for personal interest.

Shortsightedness is a common eye disorder according to article at Contact lens Spectrum http://www.clspectrum.com/article.aspx?article=103489, and while most available solutions vary from glasses to contact lenses or eye surgery, a uniformly acceptable solution has yet to be found.  This article raises an interesting point “The more important question for young people and their parents is: how can the growth of myopia be slowed down?”  I know for myself, I started wearing glasses at 15 years of age and my eyesight has worsened over time.  It finally stabilised there abouts at the age of 25+ at a fairly high prescription.  Contact lenses cause me to have dry eyes and sometimes swelling- sound familiar?

This main point this article makes is that orthokeratology is one corrective treatment modality that has exhibited great potential in myopia management (also known as corneal reshaping) and provides definite patient satisfaction with the results.  It reports findings of first-fit ortho-k success rate of 73.5 percent, with 16 percent requiring two pairs for a successful fit and 7.4 percent needing three pairs, this could make a strong argument for the ease of fit as well as the level of patient satisfaction that is obtainable with this modality.  When I think of how many different contact lenses I’ve tried over the years because I wasn’t happy with the results, this evidence is promising.  I’m getting my eye checked this week as my contacts are causing me problems again.

 Finally, this article discussed that while there was interest in overnight ortho-k for young people (based upon the numerous clinical studies performed in recent years), these studies had only evaluated subjects over a period of no more than two years and often for only six months or less.  This article summarises the need for a large multicenter longitudinal study that evaluates eye growth, effects of regression over time, ocular health, and corneal thickness change.

Definitely something to think about.

This is a statement we hear often from our clients- they hate contacts because they get dry eyes, soft lenses tear, they fall out at the most incovenient times like when swimming, surfing, dancing, clubbing etc; or they just don’t like the inconvenience of having to put them in every morning.  Fair enough, I’ve been there too!

So how is ortho-k, which uses contact lenses any different?

Well, basically you wear the specially fitted lens at night to reshape your cornea, so that in the morning you can see without visal aids.  These lenses are generally no more difficult to insert or remove than any other similar contact lenses.  Once the Orthokeratology lens is on your eye, it does not physically push on the eye to change its shape. Instead it induces hydrostatic pressures in the tear film between the contact lens and the eye. This process of fluid dynamics causes a redistribution of the cells on the surface of the cornea (Corneal Epithelium).    Simply, these cells are redistributed slightly to change the surface shape of the eye and therefore change the focusing power of the eye.  The structure and integrity of the cornea is not affected. The cells return to their normal distribution within a few days after orthokeratology is discontinued.  If you stop wearing the lenses regularly while you sleep, your vision will return to its original state in as little as 72 hours.

If you’re wondering if these orthokeratology lenses may be right for you, but you’re worried about any pain, our clients have found that initially there was a slight awareness of the therapeutic lens. But you will not feel the lenses when you sleep and there is no sense of physical corneal change…. just visual improvement when the lenses are removed.

We’d love to know what other are reasons why contact lens wearers hate wearing contacts, let us know!

Back in the day when I could go body surfing at Torquay with the girls over summer, my contacts used to tear after a few days, and get gritty sort of freyed edges which really hurt. At the time I wore monthly soft lenses, and three days is all they would last after swimming in the surf. (Dailies would have been too expensive for me then.) If this happens to you, or you’re worried about losing a lens in the surf, try orthokeratology lenses that you wear at night, which means you don’t need glasses or contact during the day. Surf’s up!