Dry eye and contacts study

[portrgirl]

Has anyone else read this study Rebecca recently posted?
http://dryeyedigest.blogspot.com/200...-wear-and.html

I just did and found it incredibly interesting. I wore contacts for 10 years with really no breaks. I didn't take very good care of my contacts for about the first 5 years. I spent the last 2.5 years glued to a computer for 8+ hours a day Monday through Friday for my job.

I've now not been able to wear contacts for over 8 months and only recently have my eyes been showing some progress in not feeling dry, painful, etc. In researching how to fix my eyes, I found questioning directed at the long-term results of contact usage but no real conclusive studies. Until this.

It really intrigues me because I've always had some eye dryness. I always dealt with it because I hated glasses. The eye doctor that I saw when my eyes got bad last year told me that my mucous layer wasn't working right, which in turn caused my tears and oily layer to not work either.

This study suggests to me that perhaps those years of contact lens wear set off a chain reaction beginning with the oily layer and ending with the mucous layer. And the high computer usage just added to the contacts' damage. Now that I'm working on the environmental issues affecting my eyes and have not worn contacts for this long, I wonder if my eyes are finally starting to heal from those 10 years of contacts wear...

Just wanted to share my thoughts.

[ttdub]

I hope your eyes do heal! It's good to know you're doing better than you were.

[Julie1]

This is a really interesting article. I always thought that my long-term contact use had something to do with my dry eyes. Thanks for posting this abstract, Rebecca!!

[browneyes]

I hope this spurs more research both on the effect of contacts on dry eye and on better diagnostic methods for detecting MGD. Every doctor I have seen has said something different about my meibomian glands, from they look healthy to they are clogged to they are empty.

I wore contacts for 14 years. I never slept in them and always changed them on time, but did wear them for many hours every day. I had to stop wearing them 1 year ago... my eyes actually continued to get worse after stopping wear.

[Lucy]

Now, the first thing that comes to my mind is that people are going to be running off to the closest Lasik/PRK doc for some fixing, now that they may not be able to wear their beloved contact lens. Please---anyone reading this and automatically thinking of getting "fixed" ......wait......and wait some more........and then just don't. No one ever died from wearing glasses.

Lucy

[rubyslippers]

I have worn hard contacts for 35 years. I also believe there is a connection. I now wear Synergeyes instead. Not sure if that is any better but they sure are comfortable.

[rewstar]

this is very interesting.. I suspected this from the start of my mgd probs.. I developed mgd symptoms after 2 months spent in Goa, where i rented a moped. Dusty roads + prolonged contact lense wear = meibomin shut down.. This was almost 2 years ago now.. So after 2 years of lid care, thera tears drops, virtually no CL wear and supplements I do feel like my eyes are starting to return to a comfortable level. Started hot compress 2 x day now I'm down to 1-2 x week..


Now that we know there is a link to CL wear and this annoying condition I think that it is an absolute outrage that CL wearers aren't warned of the dangers of CL. I know there is a recommended wearage time - But we should be made aware of the serious implications of not following the standard recommendation!!! We trust optha's etc to care for us..
I hate to get all conspiratoriast but surely if it was obvious to US, the laymen of opthamology/medicine, that there could be a link then HOW can we believe that the people, who have spent years studying the eye and it's workings, hadn't already worked this one out??!! Seems to me, from hearing everyone's similar stories of uncaring money grabbing opthamology care, that MGD is far too good a money spinner to pass up!! Better to keep us all in the dark over these risks, hence creating a chronic eye condition that the industry can make millions not being able to cure!!!! Pah! There got that off my chest!! Ha ha!

Anyway, now I just wonder if our MGs can ever fully return to there healthy state if we just care for them.... or... have the contact lenses damaged our meibomim glands forever? does anyone know of a fully recovered meibomitis patient?

At least now we are finally getting to the root of the cause which does give some satisfaction.

Happy Sunday Everyone

[sazy123]

FINELY!!

I've been saying for years not that contacts must play some sort of role, but there haven't been any studies done on them! Well only on corneal sensitivity, which DrG claims is rare to cause dry eye and the research doesn't prove it. But what about the other mechanisms that they could impact dry eye, because im sure there are more. Such as removal of contacts using the eyelids.

Im pretty sure that i would not be in this awful situation now if it wasnt for contacts, i was completely healthy 19 year old and still am healthy- dont have sjorens, auto immune disorders, only have VERY mild rosacea- not enough to cause dry eye this bad, and i had no problem wearing contacts at age 15, for the first year. Then my eyes just starting not to tolerate them, and by age 18 i could barely wear them i had problems removing them and i used my eyelids (because i was squirmish about touching my eye and was told to do it this way)- i think it caused vascular damage which led to MGD. I do think other factors are involved- such as being vulnerable to rocasea and having weak vascular structure, but still i dont think i would have got it if i took contacts out of the equation.

Other things to note is i have noticed on here, that there seems to be a very high proportion of contact lense wearers, more so than the general population. I also dont know anyone, who has ever experianced dry eye who doesnt wear contacts- even people with bad rosacea or immune illnesses, bad diet etc. But i have spoken to a few contact wearers who have complained of dry eye- thats just my experiance.




Found this bit interesting:

The average meiboscore of CL wearers was similar to that of a 60- to 69-year-old age group from the normal population. A significant positive correlation was observed between the duration of CL wear and the meiboscore.

My dry eye is probably worse than most 90 year olds, funnily enough the elderly never have tended to wear contacts as its not a their generation thing, and ive never met an elderly person with eyes as bad as mine.

And yes rebecca your probably right, I doubt contact lense companies will want to fund studies and that's probably why there hasn't been many studies of this relationship to date. But maybe drug companies will because that will give them more idea of one cause so they have more of an idea of treatment. As lasik companies are doing studies on dry eye after lasik- its time for contact lense companies to do the same.

Sorry to ramble, this study just sums up what ive been thinking for ages.

[sazy123]

this is very interesting.. I suspected this from the start of my mgd probs.. I developed mgd symptoms after 2 months spent in Goa, where i rented a moped. Dusty roads + prolonged contact lense wear = meibomin shut down.. This was almost 2 years ago now.. So after 2 years of lid care, thera tears drops, virtually no CL wear and supplements I do feel like my eyes are starting to return to a comfortable level. Started hot compress 2 x day now I'm down to 1-2 x week..


Now that we know there is a link to CL wear and this annoying condition I think that it is an absolute outrage that CL wearers aren't warned of the dangers of CL. I know there is a recommended wearage time - But we should be made aware of the serious implications of not following the standard recommendation!!! We trust optha's etc to care for us..
I hate to get all conspiratoriast but surely if it was obvious to US, the laymen of opthamology/medicine, that there could be a link then HOW can we believe that the people, who have spent years studying the eye and it's workings, hadn't already worked this one out??!! Seems to me, from hearing everyone's similar stories of uncaring money grabbing opthamology care, that MGD is far too good a money spinner to pass up!! Better to keep us all in the dark over these risks, hence creating a chronic eye condition that the industry can make millions not being able to cure!!!! Pah! There got that off my chest!! Ha ha!

Anyway, now I just wonder if our MGs can ever fully return to there healthy state if we just care for them.... or... have the contact lenses damaged our meibomim glands forever? does anyone know of a fully recovered meibomitis patient?

At least now we are finally getting to the root of the cause which does give some satisfaction.

Happy Sunday Everyone

Yeah i feel the same. But i just hope more studies are done. I mean they tried to deny lasik caused dry eye didnt they? but that came back to haunt them. Now with a few more studies they wont be able to ignore this anymore, people are being harmed and they dont realise it!

Its always seemed obvious to me that having a foreign object in your eye could cause dry eye, why is it other things like computer use, bad diet etc which are also unnatural can cause dry eye- but contact lense wear isnt even considered, and i honestly do think- mix contacts with something else like vulnerability to rosacea or dry eye (dry skin etc) and bang you get dry eye!

Re yoru last sentence- i dont think mine ever will because its been 4 years and its not much better, i think theres permenant damage, and its horrible to think that is the case, ive been hoping its allergies or something else because then it wouldnt be permanent, like others dry eye clears up when u get rid of the allergen.

[rewstar]

Sazy - do think your rosacea and mgd are existing/were caused independantly of each other?
I ask because I also have mild roascea and can't work ou if this started wit the mgd or due to my carelessnes when sunbathing(also had impetigo on my nose - eugh).
If this were the case, is it possible for the contact lense wear to trigger the MGD and then for that to kickstart the rosacea???? OR is it just mere coincidence and bad luck to have these two things co-existing at once with no connection?
Amy

[sazy123]

Sazy - do think your rosacea and mgd are existing/were caused independantly of each other?
I ask because I also have mild roascea and can't work ou if this started wit the mgd or due to my carelessnes when sunbathing(also had impetigo on my nose - eugh).
If this were the case, is it possible for the contact lense wear to trigger the MGD and then for that to kickstart the rosacea???? OR is it just mere coincidence and bad luck to have these two things co-existing at once with no connection?
Amy

This is what i believe. Facial rosacea is independent of ocular rosacea- not normally do one cause the other, thats why many can have only mid facial rosacea or hardly anything but bad ocular rosacea/dry eye and vise versa.

But if you have a susceptibility to rosacea in general- you will be susceptible to the facial and the eye component. So what ever triggers both of those conditions will cause either component. So just like sunburn can trigger facial rosacea (or make it worse), contacts may trigger ocular rosacea. Just a theory but think it makes sense.