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?

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.

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.