Restasis and contacts?

[Mawsky]

Hi everyone,
Well I broke down and went and picked up the "poison" as I refer to it from the Pharmacy today. I am reluctantly giving Restasis another try, after my Corneal specialist suggested I try it again and believes it may not be as irritation this time around, and feels it can help me. My question is that I now wear contacts and the directions for restasis were not very specific about contact use, it said it is not to be use with contacts, and if you wear them take them out before use. Usually it says If you wear contacts place drops in before putting them in or after removal on most other drops that mention Contact use. I don't want to sound too dumb but are any of you using the Restasis and wearing contacts? I hope this doesn't mean I cant wear contacts at all while using it. I think I'm just super paranoid about using them again, but I do want help for my lack of tears. The contacts help so much but don't want to damage my eyes by using them incorrectly. Thank in advance for advice.

[DCRdryeye]

Hi Mawsky, I've been trying to get a pair of scleral lens to fit properly for nearly 3 yrs now. I want to be able to wear them for 12 hours (can only do 6 hrs). So we keep getting new modifications done. When I first started Restasis I was told to use it 4 times a day. My optometrist said to simply take the sclerals out and place the Restasis on and leave it for 20 minutes before placing them back in. In turned out my eyes could not handle the frequency of Restasis (4 x day), so I settled back to twice a day. I'm not sure what contact lenses you are wearing but I don't see why you can't use Restasis too. It shouldn't cause a problem at all.

[nitrodrops]

Hi everyone,
Well I broke down and went and picked up the "poison" as I refer to it from the Pharmacy today. I am reluctantly giving Restasis another try, after my Corneal specialist suggested I try it again and believes it may not be as irritation this time around, and feels it can help me. My question is that I now wear contacts and the directions for restasis were not very specific about contact use, it said it is not to be use with contacts, and if you wear them take them out before use. Usually it says If you wear contacts place drops in before putting them in or after removal on most other drops that mention Contact use. I don't want to sound too dumb but are any of you using the Restasis and wearing contacts? I hope this doesn't mean I cant wear contacts at all while using it. I think I'm just super paranoid about using them again, but I do want help for my lack of tears. The contacts help so much but don't want to damage my eyes by using them incorrectly. Thank in advance for advice.

if you find Restasis stinging, you may want to apply Refresh Plus first, 5mins later followed by Restasis.

[Mawsky]

Thanks I will try the Refresh plus, although It may be one of the many drops I did try and have a reaction to, crazy eyes, I believe it is the two main ingredients in the drops that I react to, because it doesn't matter if they are preservative free or not, I will look at what is in the Refresh plus. Thank you again.

[Rebecca Petris]

Here is what Allergan says about contacts and Restasis:

People with decreased tear production typically should not wear contact lenses. RESTASIS® Ophthalmic Emulsion should not be administered while wearing contact lenses. Patients must remove contact lenses before applying RESTASIS®. After applying RESTASIS® Ophthalmic Emulsion, patients must wait 15 minutes before putting their lenses back in.

I'd be willing to bet a significant proportion of Restasis prescriptions these days are written to people who are using it specifically to try to improve their contact lens tolerance.

[Mawsky]

Here is what Allergan says about contacts and Restasis:



I'd be willing to bet a significant proportion of Restasis prescriptions these days are written to people who are using it specifically to try to improve their contact lens tolerance.

Thanks Rebecca, I bet your right, I never thought about that, I've heard that people with contact lens use end up stopping the contacts because their eyes feel so dry...I'm doing as instructed and just hoping that I can tolerate the Restasis this time, and I increase my tear production, time will tell, but the burning is ridiculous. ouch

[DCRdryeye]

Have you asked the prescribing ophthalmologist if Refresh Plus can be applied before application of Restasis. It's my hypothesis that the coating of Refresh could considerably reduce the effectiveness of the Restasis. The reason they recommend to close the eyes for one minute after applying Restasis is to allow the globlet cells on the eyeball to be immersed with the Restasis, now that would be significantly impaired with Refresh Plus over it. Just a thought. I wouldn't use it...No Pain, No Gain.