Lotemax Gel 0.5% with Soft Contacts??

[carolinagal]

Question: Can I wear my soft toric contacts while using Lotemax Gel paired with an Antibiotic drop. I do not have an infection. I was prescribed this for dry eyes and light sensitivity. I was told by my eye dr that I could put the drops in wait 15 min then insert contacts, but everything online states not to use the gel form of this medication with contact lenses?? What would be the reason for this?

[Hokucat]

I have used Lotemax gel too and doctor told me wait 15 minutes before putting on contacts, but I wear scleral lenses (contacts for dry eyes). Sometimes because my eyes used to be so dry, the gel stayed on my eyes longer than 15 minutes so when I put on my contacts, my vision was not clear and/or contacts were a little uncomfortable cause they stuck to my eyes. So I would rinse my eyes with preservative-free saline 15 minutes after the Lotemac, before putting on my contacts, which helped wash away any remnants of the Lotemax.

[Hokucat]

BTW, I used PuriLens Plus Preservative-Free saline to rinse the Lotemax from my eyes (I also use Purilens currently for my scleral lenses). If you have dry eye issues, best to use something without chemicals like this to wash out your eye. You can buy it online, including from this website's Dry Eye Shop.

[Hokucat]

I do recall the reason my doctor gave me to wait at least 15 minutes after using Lotemax or antibiotic eyedrop before putting in contacts...it was so the ingredients in the eyedrops did not get absorbed into the lens material (beside the medicine itself there are usually preservatives like BAK in these rx drops). Probably even more of an issue for your soft contacts than my gas permeable scleral lenses. But if you rinse with the saline after 15 mnutes as I mentioned above, that should give you a clean slate so you can put your contacts in.