Red, dry eyes from accutane

[alex123711]

Hi guys, I've had dry red eyes for over 2 years caused by a course of accutane, (I still get the dry lips and mouth from it) They are ok right now, at home they are usually bearable but if i go outside after 10 minutes in the wind, air conditioning, shopping center or supermarket they get extremely red and extremely painful and stay that way, they are extremely red when I wake up and late at night as well. I pretty much have to wear sunglasses 24/7 as they are unbelievably red and inflamed , mainly the bottom eyelids.

Have been diagnosed with dry eyes/ blepharitis. I've tried all the otc eye drops as well as others from the dry eye store/ overseas and prescription etc. Never found any that helped at all, tried the ointments, they seem to make my eyelids more inflamed, tried the eye plugs, used to do the compresses, for about a year, didn't help. Still do lid scrubs every night, take flaxseed oil, fish oil, evening primrose, NAC, biotin, zinc, and doxycycline. Using restasis, haven't noticed any difference yet. My schirmers test showed 0 in left eye and 6 in right. I live in Australia and the eye doctors/ specialists are a joke who seem to think dry eye is a joke/ a minor problem. They have no idea.

I read about scleral lenses, even though my eyesight is 20/20 at the moment I heard it can help with dry eyes.. saw an optometrist that fits them, he told me they are not for dry eye and would only make it worse.

I'm only 21 and its impossible living with this I don't know what else to try nothing has helped so far and its only going to get worse as I get older. I think I'm going to lose my job over this because it is unbearable to work in the windy conditions my job requires. Considering travelling to the U.S to try IPL, would be pretty costly to stay there for a few months though.

[Rebecca Petris]

I pretty much have to wear sunglasses 24/7 as they are unbelievably red and inflamed , mainly the bottom eyelids.

Hi and welcome. Sorry to hear about your plight. - Do you have foam-lined sunglasses? Sounds like you may need a complete seal. Have a look at Wiley-X and 7Eye sunglasses with the foam seal.

I read about scleral lenses, even though my eyesight is 20/20 at the moment I heard it can help with dry eyes.. saw an optometrist that fits them, he told me they are not for dry eye and would only make it worse.

Typical ignorance - many doctors in the US would say the same because they simply aren't up to date (and truthfully most kinds of sclerals are rarely fitted for dry eye). But sclerals are for when all other options have been exhausted and you may have some ways to go on that.

I think I'm going to lose my job over this because it is unbearable to work in the windy conditions my job requires.

Again, I'd urge getting truly-sealing glasses to get some immediate relief....

[alex123711]

Yes I have the panoptx and wiley x foam glasses. I found an optometrist who said he would fit the sclerals, how do I know if they are the right type for dry eye? Apparently the cost $1400 each so I'd like to be sure before hand, also how long do they usually last?

Regards,

Alex.

[03CobraDryEye]

I hope you're off accutane. That has a lot of psychiatric side effects and has been linked to many suicides in the usa over the years. Accutane used to be prescribed big time to bodybuilders here that had severe acne from using certain anabolic steroids.

[Rebecca Petris]

Okay so you've been there and done that moisture chambers... ouch, I'm sorry. Rough road.

Is anybody here still in touch with untkicker29? He was our first 'resident accutane victim' and he was very young too when he joined... I always think of him when the subject comes up. Alex, you might want to look him up in the directory and see if he has something useful to share from his experiences. Since he's not been here in a long time I'm wondering if possibly that means he's better.

Regarding sclerals: I don't mean exactly that one is better for dry eye than another. With sclerals, success often has a great deal to do with the fit. Boston Foundation for Sight is the only place that I know of who do nothing but scleral fitting (with their own lathe) and so they have dealt with far more dry eye patients of late... most other outfits fitting commercially available scleral lenses do it for vision problems, not dry eye. - I would not recommend attempting fitting unless the one doing it has experience - and success - specifically with this indication.

[odydnas]

I wanted to add that Boston Foundation for Sight and Dr. Gemoules are the only two places I know of that make scleral lenses customized for your eyes in the US. I have no idea about Australia, but I do know that most other optometric places offer sclerals that are not customized and the fit is similar to regular contact lenses where they come in a variety of standardized fits. Your chances of success will probably be better with the customized lens. Ask the optometrist how much experience he/she has with fitting sclerals for dry eyes and if they are completely customized. You should also check out the Scleral Lens section. Good luck!

[alex123711]

Do you think it would be worth taking the risk of going all the way to the U.S for IPL? Even if it just helped with the redness that would be a massive help..

[alex123711]

Just wondering if anyone could tell me the process of getting boston scleral lenses fitted and if they are specifically for dry eye and what the estimate cost would be

Cheers.