Contacts for Dry eyes?

[dryeyes]

I have not had LASIK done on my eyes. So, I do not need contact lens to correct vision problems caused by LASIK. But, I do have very dry eyes. I was wondering what people with dry eyes in this forum are wearing. I have tried Proclear toric and I could not tolerate the toric lens. I am currently wearing the regular Proclear lens.

[Chris]

There is the Boston scleral lens prosthetic device which creates a sort of liquid bandage for irritated corneas. It is filled with fluid and sits on the sclera, not the cornea. I hear you can only get them out East somewhere and they are expensive. You may want to do a search on them.

Chris

[Rebecca Petris]

In the "hard" end of the spectrum there's also mini sclerals and Macrolenses.

I am having reasonable success with Macrolenses. They are very large gas perms, which vault over most of the cornea. I got them for vision problems that couldn't be corrected with a soft lens (and my eyes haven't tolerated soft lenses well since lasik) but I still think of them as a possibility for some people with tolerance problems with other types of lenses.

[dryeyes]

I once asked my doctor about the macro lens. She said that they are hard to fit and not as comfortable as soft lens. So, she did not want to try those lenses. She thought I would not be successful with them.
Is there any other soft lens out there?

[Rebecca Petris]

I once asked my doctor about the macro lens. She said that they are hard to fit and not as comfortable as soft lens. So, she did not want to try those lenses. She thought I would not be successful with them.
Is there any other soft lens out there?

Oh, I'm sure many ODs would respond that way as they are not in very common use. But it wasn't my personal experience. My corneal surfaces look like the Hawaiian islands on topography and I still got a decent fit that is as comfortable as soft lenses used to be for me.

Other soft lenses, Focus Night & Day, and Definition AC are popular with many patients I know.

[Rebecca Petris]

Say by the way, I just recently became aware of Contact Lens Today, an email newsletter for eye docs that fit contact lenses. There are a lot of real gems out there in their newsletter archives at http://www.cltoday.com/archive.asp that patients who like self-serve info of this type could benefit from.

[dianat]

Read this thread. It's about the Definition AC lens. My dry eye friend has had success wearing these. It might be worth looking into. They are made by Optical Connection, I believe.

http://lasermyeye.org/forums/showthread.php?t=264

[dryeyes]

Has anyone tried ACUVUE® ADVANCE lens?

[dryeyes]

Thanks for the links.

[holly]

Acuvue Advanced

I've been wearing the Acuvue Advanced Soft Lenses for a few months before my dry eye problem got so bad. I'm no longer able to wear them. I'm wearing glasses. I also tried the Focus Night & Day but my eyes were still dry and they are VERY THIN and were a little hard for me to remove.

[jannz]

proclear compatibles

Hi Everybody,

New to this forum -- but not new to dry eyes.

I've had some success with 'Proclear Compatibles -- by CooperVision". And I'm using their "multifocal" approach for the reading / long distance issues of -- sigh --- getting older.

I had been wearing the Accuvue lenses for years.. then I developed the dry eyes and had to just wear my glasses. I missed wearing my contacts though so my doctor and I did some experimenting with some contact brands and the "proclear" lenses came out best overall for dryness AND especially being able to SEE properly.

I don't wear my contacts all the time -- but when I do, I can wear them for a good 8 hrs or more... and if I use some saline drops while wearing them I could probably wear them longer.

I want to mention that I've improved my dry eye situation remarkably by taking supplements. I take the BioTears, Fish Oil, and other vitamins.

...hope this helps.

Best wishes...
Jann

[mspirk]

Hi Jann,

Thanks for posting! Glad you're getting relief. Could you tell us in more detail what vitamins you take and the amount of fish oil?

[jannz]

Hi Everybody,

Could you tell us in more detail what vitamins you take and the amount of fish oil?

I take daily:

1. Cooper Complete multivitamin - [ 4 tabs 2x daily ]
2. Cooper Complete - Skin & Eye Formula -- [ 2 tabs 1x daily ]
3. Fisol by Natures Way. [ 2 caps 2x daily ] each cap is 500 mg fish oil
4. BioTears - [ 2 caps 2x daily ]

I sometimes take some Milk Thistle, 1-2 tblsp ground flax seed in my smoothies, and I will be adding some Green Tea Extract soon.

Individuals react differently as I'm sure we all know -- but this is what's working for me -- right now anyway. I've been on this program / routine for about 10 mos. [?] and yes.. I still have dry eyes, but not nearly as bad. I rarely have to use eye drops anymore... so SOMETHING's working. [??]

Best wishes...
Jann

[mspirk]

Wow! That's quite a regimen. But if it works for you, that's great. Thanks for letting us know.