Hydrating contacts for eyes w/ steep curves

[katy]

The curves of my eyes are very steeply (unfortunately I don't know the exact english expression )
It's 7.5 in the right eye and 7.4 left.
So I cannot wear most kind of contacts (beside the fact that I have problems wearing contacts in general because of my dry eyes).
If I wear contacts (which is very rare) I'm wearing the Oasys, but I start hurting pretty soon.

Can you recommend some kind of contacts that suit my curve (7.4/ 7.5) and are also very hydrating and 'good' for the cornea (I had a Keratitis and therefore some corneal erosions).

Most of the time I wear glasses but I would do anything to be able to wear contacts again (even if it's only once in awhile) !

Thank you so much for any kind of advice!

PS: Please excuse my bad english (I'm not a native speaker).

[calli66]

Have you googled "steep base curves?" I'm sure you have. I used to be really determined to continue with wearing contacts, but truthfully, they made my dry eye problems chronic. Yes, the hydrating and protective qualities felt good sometimes. I've had to re-think what mechanical effects lenses were having on my tears.

Stuff I learned from this forum---that contacts prevent the tears from spreading evenly across the cornea during a blink. To work right, there have to be enough tears present to form a layer both behind and in front of the contact. So if there aren't enough tears, then there's rubbing and irritation, which really limits your wearing time.

The soft lens protects and hydrates the cornea even if there aren't enough tears, but they keep it saturated with a stagnant tear layer or the re-wetting drops you use---not a healthy state. In my case (Sjogren's), the "dirty" tears increase the inflammation response.

In your case---you have steep corneas already, so maybe your tears have a hard time wetting the eye surface during blinks. Maybe they "avoid' the high spots, or wet them less. Just my speculation and thinking out loud, you understand.

Sounds like you could maybe wear some sort of hard contact lens or scleral lens that would be custom designed to fit your corneas. Talk to your doctor about trying that.

C

[katy]

@calli:

Thank you so much for your these useful information!

I was also thinking about hard lenses but I thought the need even more tears respectively they're even worse for dry eyes...

But I guess I was wrong..?

So hard lenses are better for dry eyes in general or only for eyes with a steep base curve?

What exactly are scleral lenses?
I've read about them in this forum but I still don't know what they're exactly..?
Do they come with vision correction?

Thanks a lot again,
Katy

[calli66]

I haven't tried hard lenses for many years, but some say that dry eye patients can wear them successfully. The theory is that soft lenses need more moisture (tears) to keep them hydrated, and they tend to lose moisture through evaporation. When they dry out they're unstable and uncomfortable. I don't know that much about the modern types of hard lenses----fitting, or anything like that. From what I understand, hard lenses are made to fit the curvature of a person's cornea , while soft lenses simply "drape" over the cornea (because they're flexible) and come in a limited selection of base curves. Like "Normal" and "A Bit Flatter (or Steeper) than Normal."

There is much information about scleral lenses on this forum. They are a special type of hard lens with a large diameter. Look here for a description. They are very expensive, custom fit lenses that can help people who have damaged corneas and who are in constant pain.

C

[katy]

Thank you, Calli.
I wonder why many people don't get along with hard lenses or feel they're hurting their eyes...?

Do you know how much the scleral lenses are approximately and how long they last?

I'll try to get some more info about these kind of lenses..