Anyone feel worse when they wear glasses?

[jjright1]

Might be a mental thing, but everytime I wear glasses, I feel my DES symptoms become worse. Anyone else?

[rewstar]

You mean Prescription glasses? I Feel worse when I wear glasses.. If I wear My contact lenses My eyes feel almost normal - but when I take them out and go back to glasses - my eyes start to feel irritated again. Go figure Do you wear lenses?

[jjright1]

yeah. i was referring to prescription lenses. What type of contacts do you use? I used to use Acuvue Oasys and they seem to dry my eyes.

[Lucy]

I wear glasses on a daily basis (needed) and find they provide a barrier to wind, fans and AC/heat vents. If I didn't need corrective lens, I'd wear fashion glasses just to have this barrier. We are all different, though. Lucy

[Scout]

Might be a mental thing, but everytime I wear glasses, I feel my DES symptoms become worse. Anyone else?

Do you wear wire-framed or plastic-framed glasses?

I ask because nickel is the most common allergen/irritant for eyes and the skin around your eyes and eyelids. Almost all metals in jewelry/glasses, etc., contain nickel in some amount. If you are sensitive to allergies/irritants and your glasses frames are made of metal, you could be having an allergic reaction or an inflammation due to the irritant.

But if you wear plastic frames with no metal in them . . . well, then it's probably something else.

Scout

[clairvoyant]

feel the same way... gonna do epi-lasik/prk

And just to add to the conversation. I think it is believed that not using corrected lenses can lower blink rate and I bet for a person with des/bleph/sd/ros. this same phenomenon can happen with glasses. I defenitely notice it happens with me. In that sense it seems like contacts are better. And also your vision should be better as it is corrected at the cornea.

So it's like struggle with contacts and all the run around for more treatment or just get everything cleared then do surgery and treat the dryness.

btw what type of lenses you using?

[jjright1]

Thats actually very interesting. My glasses are wire-framed. I will have to test this theory out.

Do you wear wire-framed or plastic-framed glasses?

I ask because nickel is the most common allergen/irritant for eyes and the skin around your eyes and eyelids. Almost all metals in jewelry/glasses, etc., contain nickel in some amount. If you are sensitive to allergies/irritants and your glasses frames are made of metal, you could be having an allergic reaction or an inflammation due to the irritant.

But if you wear plastic frames with no metal in them . . . well, then it's probably something else.

Scout

[TRiBaL]

Oh my god I was thinking the same theory 3 months ago. I swear when I take off my glasses when my eyes hurt and burn the pain seems to go away a little bit. Sometimes I think its because my glasses are old or something and I need new ones. I didn't know you could be allergic to the frame of the glasses. Then wouldn't your eyes be itchy all the time? Usually that's the sign if your allergic to something. But this topic is very interesting. Maybe some people's eyes can't use glasses because of something.

[alisonW]

Hi there...

Do you wear contacts when you're not wearing your glasses? If so, what you could be experiencing is the "band-aid" affect/effect. When you have dry eyes and wear a contact lenses (particularly soft) the lens acts as a bandage on your eye - the water in the lens lubricates and protects the surface of your eye. Once the eye has soaked up all the water, or you remove the lens, you'll likely feel even drier then before/without them. All of my eye docs have said that that situation (wearing the contacts) just sets you up for continuing the viscious cycle. I was told to completely stop wearing my contacts and to only wear glasses since the contacts also desensitisize the eyes and make the lacrimal glands produce less tears because they can no longer tell when the surface is actually dry or not. (Something like that.) Long-term contact lens use itself is a common cause of dry eye syndrome.

Obviously disregard this if you only wear glasses for reading or not all the time. Also, if this may be your problem, do a board search for more posts about bandage lenses. Hth!

[rewstar]

yeah. i was referring to prescription lenses. What type of contacts do you use? I used to use Acuvue Oasys and they seem to dry my eyes.

Yeah - I used them too. at moment am using focus dailies.. The band aid effect makes sense..


Be careful with laser.. I want to have it too - but I think it can be really risky if you already have dry eyes.. It can really escalate things.. So I've heard..

[jlg_uk]

Yes. I think that when I wear glasses my DES is noticeably worse. I only have a mild rx at present, so have been living without wearing them, although I suspect that worsening eye sight, and increasing eye strain will make this impossible long term.

I assume this happens because either:

a) wearing glasses changes my blink pattern (I can see better and don't have to work so hard at focusing, which would otherwise cause me to blink more)

b) changes the airflow over the eye.

I'm going with the first one for now - anyone else have similar views?