DIY Hydrogen Peroxide Solution Recipe

[hosanna13]

I am currently disinfecting my sclerals everyday with store-bought Clear Care 3% Hydrogen Peroxide (H2O2) solution. It's expensive and runs out quickly.

I'm wondering if I can just use good old 3% H2O2 that costs $1 instead of Clear Care solution. According to the bottle, the expensive stuff contains "microfiltered" H2O2, but once it's neutralized by the catalyst, it just become saline, right? I could easily mix a little bit of sea salt with H2O2 at home. If I also rinse with tap water anyways, so how bad could it be?

Anyone tried this?
Thanks for reading.

[L8rgator]

I was told not to rinse anything with tap water - even my tools. Dr. G told me do all my rinsing with sterile saline. To save some money, I was using walmart brand to rinse just my tools instead of unisol (still use unisol for addipak or filling lens and rinsing that though). I was filling my night time sealed bandaid with tap water, but he also said use only sterile saline, or sterile water would be fine but not tap water.

Here is Boston Sights answer to your question:
http://www.bostonsight.org/PROSE-tre...evice-Cleaning (see about 1/3 of the way down)

My (admittedly very limited) understanding is that one the reasons doctors poo-poo the use of sclerals is in part that they are afraid people will get more infections. And infections with sclerals can be really really bad - like damaging. I really want doctors to start learning about and promoting sclerals because I think they help so many people. So honestly the disinfecting regiment is probably the one thing I wouldn't mess with personally. And I'm a total utter cheapskate looking for cheaper homemade alternatives. I just don't want doctors to have any excuse to keep saying "sclerals wouldn't work for you. they are not safe" because they catch wind of one infection somewhere.

The price price I found for clear care last time I looked was at aclens.com - http://is.gd/PQOZY2 . Right now can get $5 savings over $50 - code ACLSAVE5, or 15% off for signing up for their newsletter I think. They do often put out 10% off and 20% off coupons - keep an eye at retailmenot or couponcabin.

[hosanna13]

Hm that's interesting, my dr said it's okay to rinse with tap water. I'm going to double check on that now. She said it's def a no no with soft lenses because they can absorb harmful chemicals, but with hard lenses it's not a problem.

[Guest]

If you rinse your lenses with tap water they will no longer be sterile - and then you're going to stick that on your warm moist eye, bathed in saline solution (= perfect bacteria and fungus breeding ground) and keep it there for hours on end - why would you take such chances?

Now I don't know much about regular-sized hard contact lenses, but I do know they don't cover your entire eyeball like sclerals do, and they do not hold a reservoir of fluid against your eye ball all day like sclerals do (perfect breeding ground for bacteria and fungus) - scleral lenses are a completely different type of hard contact lens due to this.

It is super important to maintain the sterility of your scleral lenses - please do NOT mess around with this and take chances. The consequences of such an infection can be severe - you don't need any more problems - don't risk it.

I would LOVE to know what doctor said this was ok - was it a doctor who is qualified to dispense scleral lenses? Was it the doctor who gave you your scleral lenses? I bet you she has no experience with scleral lenses. Confirm not with THIS doctor, but with the doctor who gave you the scleral lenses.

re: which peroxide to use for disinfection - YES, you can use the cheap no-name stuff - I was told this at Boston Foundation for Sight - they said some patients experience irritation from using this no-name peroxide and if you do, then switch back to exclusively using Clear Care. The trick to doing this was to buy 1 bottle of clear care for the catalyst, then the catalyst was good for a few bottles of no-name peroxide - I do not remember how many bottles one catalyst is good for though - check with BFS on this.

Lastly, what do you mean when you say you could easily mix sea salt and water at home? For what purpose? Again, I would not let such a solution anywhere near your sclerals since it will not be sterile!!!! Use only sterile solutions on your sclerals.

[hosanna13]

You're right, I shouldn't be a Curious George with my eyes anymore.

I am going to call my dr on Monday to confirm re: tap water. She is the one who fitted my scleral lens; she said she's been doing this for 20 years... but you're right, tap water is not sterile.

[hosanna13]

And then you find studies like this where the rate of infection was double when wounds were cleaned with sterile saline vs. tap water

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1356466

[littlemermaid]

http://www.aoa.org/patients-and-publ...t-lenses?sso=y Using tap water for contact lenses is against all regulations, and you might want to consider asking the AOA whether using tap water for scleral lenses was good advice, especially after 20y. Google 'contact lens infection tap water' and 'contact lens solution infection'.

Maybe take a look at amoebic and fungal keratitis from contact lens solutions, swimming pools etc. Although the parasite acanthamoeba is pervasive and difficult to kill, fungi and mould send hyphae into corneal layers and may not be diagnosed accurately soon enough just through the slit-lamp to kill it and save the eye.

I imagine not many contact lens fitting Optometrists are able to organise lab work for impression cytology or corneal scrapes for diagnosis when they think they are just looking at red eye, persistent watering, photophobia, punctate keratopathy.

This study even found 'interesting' mutated bugs and vectors no one knew existed http://io9.com/5952451/woman-with-ey...-lens-solution

[Guest]

And then you find studies like this where the rate of infection was double when wounds were cleaned with sterile saline vs. tap water

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1356466

Well, that study was done on wounds - it was not done on eyeballs with a scleral lens trapping any possible contaminants against a warm, moist eyeball all day. Do not make the mistake of assuming that the findings of that study would also apply to scleral lens use.

Furthermore, that link only shows the study's abstract (ie. the summary) - you'd never know if it was a well done study (and if the conclusions are therefore reasonable) unless you read the entire study.

Please do not take chances with your sclerals - it is imperative that you maintain the sterility of those lenses if you plan on putting them in your eyes. We know for sure that if you maintain sterility, the lenses are safe to use. But the same cannot be said for wearing non-sterile scleral lenses.

[Guest]

I am going to call my dr on Monday to confirm re: tap water. She is the one who fitted my scleral lens; she said she's been doing this for 20 years... but you're right, tap water is not sterile.

Wow. Just wow.

I am stunned that she would suggest that you do something so risky - it is contrary to everything I learned at the Boston Foundation for Sight. And based on what I know of the potential for infection if you put a non-sterile thing in your eye, her advice makes no sense to me. You couldn't pay me enough to put a scleral lens rinsed with tap water into my eye and leave it there for hours. I have enough problems with my eyes as it is - don't need more on top of them. Yikes!

http://www.fda.gov/medicaldevices/pr.../ucm062589.htm "Tap and distilled water have been associated with Acanthamoeba keratitis, a corneal infection that is resistant to treatment and cure."

http://www.nhs.uk/Livewell/Eyehealth...enssafety.aspx Under 'All types of lenses,' "Never bring your lenses into contact with tap water. "

Forgive me for saying so, but I think your doctor is nuts to suggest using tap water... certifiably insane...

[hosanna13]

Only way I can rationalize it is if she meant it's okay to rinse with tap water BEFORE the disinfection phase with H2O2.

[L8rgator]

from the huffington post about soft lenses:
What you're doing: You let tap water come into contact with your contact lenses.
Why you should stop: Seems harmless enough, right? Wrong. That's because tap water isn't salty like tears are, so contact lenses tend to absorb the water and swell. The contact lens will then "hold" it, which is a problem because water -- even water safe to drink -- isn't sterile and contains microorganisms. "If your lens swells, it changes how the lens fits on your eye and it will often make the lens tighten on the eye," Thau says. This can then create microscopic breaks in your cornea that microorganisms can get into, potentially causing infection. That's why it's important not to shower or swim with your contact lenses in, she says (plus swimming in your contact lenses ups the chances of them coming out of your eye). In addition, you should never use water in place of solution for storing your contact lenses.

So I assume that sclerals might not get the same type of "swelling" and "microscopic breaks" problems. - especially because it vaults instead of making direct contact. But sclerals purposely hold liquid in, and they are porous, so I would think the dangers of housing microorganisms from tap water might outweight that benefit. Especially for people who already have damaged eye surfaces from dry eye.

My "tap water" comes from a well. So it contains high amounts of scale & iron (despite being double softened). And obviously, there is a high change for microorganisms (my father once caught some kind of parasite worms from drinking his well water - ewww!). I would be afraid that combination would at a minimum clog the pores in my lens and decrease the oxygen permeability, or increase fogging, or allergic or irritation reactions (and hence, more fogging). In places around here that don't have a well, they usually add fluoride and/or chlorine to the water. Sometimes so much so that it smells like a hot tub. I definitely wouldn't want my lens exposed to either. But I am just hypothesizing - I really don't know and haven't seen any studies. Has anyone heard of anyone with a scleral getting a bad infection, at all?

[Guest]

Only way I can rationalize it is if she meant it's okay to rinse with tap water BEFORE the disinfection phase with H2O2.

Maybe that's it. I'm hugely paranoid about infection risk when it comes to my eyes though - wouldn't even rinse them in tap water before disinfection hehe I figure the less contaminants on the lenses, the easier a job it is to get them back to a clean and sterile state.

[hosanna13]

SAAG,

I remember reading your posts about how you and your family are planning to travel/work abroad? How is that going? It's so encouraging that you are living life to the fullest despite this condition. I never realized how much I took for granted before.

[littlemermaid]

Hosanna, I noticed you posted you are in Med school. It would be good to know more about lab methods to sample and ID eye bugs - do you take microbiology?

[Guest]

SAAG,

I remember reading your posts about how you and your family are planning to travel/work abroad? How is that going? It's so encouraging that you are living life to the fullest despite this condition. I never realized how much I took for granted before.

Hubby and I have both quit our jobs - currently showing our house to potential renters - 41 days until we leave! As of May 30, we are both officially jobless. And my hubby was joking this morning that effective July 1, we will be jobless and homeless lol Obviously in a good way though, since we chose this.

Experimenting with some on-line potential income sources - had an offer for remote work from a previous employer (he's taking a few weeks to come up with a formal proposal) - things are falling into place - don't know if they'll stay that way, but that's ok.

And I'm figuring out how many unit dose PF vials can fit into the the carry-on baggage liquid luggage allowance for the zip lock bag (5 boxes of bion tears fit if you remove the foil packets from the box - this is a 5 week supply for me) - still have to figure out how much of the Celluvisc and my nighttime ointment I can fit - I'll be taking over my family's liquid allowance hehe. (In Asia, medication still counts towards your carry-on liquid allowance - boooooo!)

Other than that, I no longer need to buy that crazy expensive portable freezer - since starting acupuncture I've been able to successfully discontinue my serum drops - not traveling with them will make my travel life much easier! The naturopath has 41 more days to work some more magic - fingers crossed he can improve me further.