New laser surgery techniques that does NOT cause dry eye?

[Leesaw73]

I am 36 years old and have severe dry eye from pingueculas in my eyes and abusing contact lens wear. Needless to say I cannot put a contact in my eye without it sticking to my eyeball. I have been wearing glasses full time for 2 years now because of this and it is starting to ruin my self esteem/self image. I feel as if the glasses are really taking away from my looks (vein, I know and I am sorry) I want to be able to enjoy the remaining, limited years of my youth and looks without having to wear glasses.
Are there any new laser procedures that do not cause dry eye, and would I even be a candidate to begin with because of my existing dry eye problem? Are there any other solutions? I feel chained down to my glasses and I am not liking it.

[Rebecca Petris]

I am 36 years old and have severe dry eye from pingueculas in my eyes and abusing contact lens wear. Needless to say I cannot put a contact in my eye without it sticking to my eyeball.

With the severity of your condition I think that you are unlikely to be a decent candidate for any elective corneal surgery. A word of caution: It is almost always possible to find a doctor who will assure you that you are a good candidate, but that doesn't make you one. I've known people with quite severe dry eye being told they were 'good candidates' but frankly that's when the main criterion is a valid credit card.

In my opinion, there is and will not be in the foreseeable future any corneal laser procedure which does not carry noteworthy risk of dry eye even in a healthy cornea. As to non-laser procedures, there's lens implants. Those carry their own unique set of risks as a rather more invasive procedure and you'd have to talk to a doctor to learn more.

Personally the two solutions I can think of are:

1) Take the money you would have spent on surgery and buy a bunch of really snazzy glasses. Glasses are so cool these days and so fashionable - many people think of them as accessories rather than necessities.

2) Mini scleral gas perm lenses, since sclerals are the only kind of contact that does not come in contact with the cornea (and can even treat dry eye in some cases). That's a difficult and expensive path and it may be hard to find someone local who can do it. But it's the only truly glasses-free option I'm aware of for someone with bad dry eye.

[Leesaw73]

Hey Rebecca! Thanks for the recommendations and advice. I would DEFINITELY be willing to spend the $$$ on the sclera lenses that is a great idea! I have one question. Since I have the pingeculas on the the whites of my eyes do you think the scleras would rub up against them and make them worse or irritate them?

[Rebecca Petris]

Oopsie, sorry, I overlooked that part of your post. I'm too pinguecula-illiterate to answer that question. You would have to contact a doctor who fits lenses to get a better idea as to whether it could be doable for you.

[Aaron77]

In the last 2 weeks I talked to 5 people that had lasik and only 1 of them claims not to have any dry eye syptoms post lasik. These are all people that had it done years ago yet they still have dry eye issues. Dry eye sucks! Lasik sucks!

Get some specialty contacts for dry eye, there are doctors out there who can fit them. Pay the extra bucks, its worth it. Because the dry eye pain has hurt my ability to work so bad I've lost more then 10 times the cost of my lasik in lost wages less than a year after the surgery.