Synergeyes Contacts for Dry Eye

[Stanza]

This is great news. What I really liked about your thread is also that you have an optician that has wanted to really make this work with you. There's still hope for some good ones out there

[rubyslippers]

The more I wear them the more that burning feeling upon removal is leaving. I wore them 15 hours yesterday straight and they only burned for a minute or two after I removed them. My eyes are requiring less drops throughout the day too. Yesterday I only used drops about once every 5-6 hours and only becuase I had a very light dry sensation. My dry eye is very related to my menstrual cycle and I am in what should be my very worst week right now. I see the eye doctor today for my follow up.

[calli66]

I read this on the Focus Laboratories website here, regarding FreshKote. (Scroll down to read the last question).

Q: Can FreshKote® be used with contact lenses?

A: Yes, FreshKote® is compatible with contact lenses. FreshKote® can actually improve your contact lens tolerance due to its superior wetting properties. (Hundreds of patients who wear contact lenses have reported excellent results, but FreshKote has not yet been submitted to the FDA as a contact lens rewetting agent under a 510(k) medical device submission).

Calli

[Rebecca Petris]

Although Dakrina and NutraTear are not labeled as contact lens rewetting drops, a search of the archives will show that many -- including Rebecca, I believe -- successfully use these for this purpose.

I do this, both with Dakrina and with NutraTear, when I wear my RGPs, and I've never had any problem with it.

Randal

My recommendation is that people ask their doctor for a thumbs up to use them on an off-label basis before doing this. I use NutraTear as a wetting drop and periodically Dwelle as a filler for my sclerals (usually topped off with Unisol) on this basis. Coincidentally, I "met" a patient on the phone today with Stevens Johnson Syndrome who wears a scleral lens and he has used Dakrina as the filler for it for quite a long time - first one that I know of to the best of my recollection. We had a nice chat about our various choices of scleral cocktails.

[Randal]

Although Dakrina and NutraTear are not labeled as contact lens rewetting drops, a search of the archives will show that many -- including Rebecca, I believe -- successfully use these for this purpose.

I do this, both with Dakrina and with NutraTear, when I wear my RGPs, and I've never had any problem with it.

Randal

I had LASIK eight years ago, and now wear custom RGPs. When I remove the lenses at the end of the day, after 12 - 14 hours of wear, I find I need some sort of drops or my eyes feel sticky and dry. I have had the best luck with "Dakrina", "NutraTear", and a lubricant gel such as Genteal. The "Dakrina" and "NutraTear" will sting if my eyes are particularly dry or tired, but when I use them consistently, they definitely help improve my tear quality. I wish I could use them when wearing my RGPs.

Lynne

[HOSADOS]

RS-could u pls explain what are Synergeyes Contacts & terms like RGP and etc...thks

RS-could u pls explain what are Synergeyes Contacts & terms like RGP and etc...thks
In general, I'm interested to learn more about the use of contact lenses -bandage lens, scleral lens and the lens you're referring to.

[gz9gjg]

After removing contacts what drops do you use?

I had LASIK eight years ago, and now wear custom RGPs. When I remove the lenses at the end of the day, after 12 - 14 hours of wear, I find I need some sort of drops or my eyes feel sticky and dry. I have had the best luck with "Dakrina", "NutraTear", and a lubricant gel such as Genteal. The "Dakrina" and "NutraTear" will sting if my eyes are particularly dry or tired, but when I use them consistently, they definitely help improve my tear quality. I wish I could use them when wearing my RGPs.

Lynne

[Stanza]

It's not easy finding opticians that will do the RGPs with skirts though is it? Sclerals interest me too, half of me is scared though, that might be my only solution to problems with really heavy glasses when I'm old and crinkly. So what will I do if I can't wear them?

Unless they invent some fabulous thin lens double the 1.90s, lol.

[calli66]

I just wanted to comment here. After I quit wearing contacts, it took a full month for my corneas to get stable and more comfortable. I no longer had that shock when I took out the lenses and exposed them to air.

But I totally understand your predicament, having high myopia and astigmatism. It sounds like the Synergeyes contacts are helping you in many ways. Your description of the fluid layer between the lens and the cornea sounds almost the same as the Boston scleral lens design.

I had heard, several years ago, that there had been problems with that type of lens design, and it sounds as though the company has improved the lens since then.

You sound like a really motivated lens wearer, and I hope everything continues going well. From what you've said in your post, I gather that your doctor thinks your corneas are healing now.

I would be interested in any comments from scleral wearers, or any info on the web that anyone has found----as to the long-term effect of bathing the cornea in fluid for so many hours per day.

Calli

[rubyslippers]

Adding a note: If I wear RGP's (not the Synergeyes) for any part of a day then my eyes are much more comfortable with glasses alone, and can be quite tolerable. It took us about 6 days with NO contacts to see that my bare eyes were not a good thing. I know it sounds strange and makes little sense but I think the difference is in RGP's protecting me from the air but at the same time causing inflammation from rubbing, versus these protecting from the air with NO rubbing.

[rubyslippers]

The doctor says the reason I have the pain is from exposing my eyes to the air. When I wear only glasses (which I did all last week and no contacts at all) the symptoms actually get worse. He says this is how you tell if the contacts are part of the problem. With 9 days with no contacts at all and worsening symptoms, I seem to be getting better each day that I wear the contacts. I do need to add that when I wore my gas perms at all, the only time I was comfortable was wearing glasses only. It took a period of days before we could tell what the deal was.

I removed my contacts after work today and they seem to be getting better. Very little burning today. He says I can probably expect to only improve and that pain should eventually go completely away. I have had several bouts of using no contacts at all due to waiting for different contacts (have had 7 pair since January) and everytime my eyes got worse over those periods and better when I had the contacts, except that I could feel the edges of the plain RGP's due to not enough fluid on the eyes to make them float. Now that these float and no part of the RGP center touches my eye, I am completely comfortable. When I put in drops I can feel them seep under the soft skirt and under the RGP and remain there for a long time. My vision blurs for a second or two and then clears. He says I am feeling better because I am trapping moisture on my eyes for the day and nothing is rubbing. I don't know all the technicalities except I do know that my other contacts did provide some relief from the cool feeling, but exacerbated the inflammation because they rubbed. We seem to have covered all the bases.

I have very "pointed corneas" and am 20/1400 with very severe astigmatism. Do scleral lenses give good, crisp vision?

[Rebecca Petris]

As soon as I took my contacts off last night I had symptoms for an hour that were miserable.

Rubyslippers I'm really happy for you with the relief you're getting and don't want to detract from it but I do feel the need still to suggest some caution here.

I have spent the last 7 years either wearing or trying to wear various types of gas perms (including piggybacks) and I know that it may be anything but obvious what the misery is coming from after removing lenses - that is, whether it's just that you have lost the protective factor and the pain is kicking in from sudden exposure to the real world - OR if the lenses themselves are causing problems (even while they are temporarily relieving symptoms - which sounds contradictory but isn't).

In my experience, I failed to make the distinction until I started wearing lenses that did not rest on any part of the cornea - whereupon I suddenly found that it was possible for my eyes to feel really good immediately after lens removal. This left me with the unwelcome conclusion that the pain I had been experiencing after lens removal previously was caused at least in part by the lenses - despite how good my eyes felt while wearing them. This is a key part of why I have opted to stick with scleral lenses for the long term.

[rubyslippers]

I think I had very mild symptoms for years too. About 5 years ago when I was having some other health problems my eye doctor asked if I had ever been checked for Sjogrens because my eyes looked so dry to him. I had no discomfort and did not believe that I had dry eyes, but it is there in my charts that were forwarded to my new doctor when this one retired. I was checked for Sjogrens about 2 months ago and all tests came back clear and the other fishy symptoms went completely away when I got treated for another illness.

I wore my Synergeyes for 10 hours yesterday. I woke up this morning with no dry eye symptoms at all for the first time in 6 months. Probably just having a good day, but it sure is strange. As soon as I took my contacts off last night I had symptoms for an hour that were miserable.

[Stanza]

It's interesting what you say about being more comfortable with them on. I always got the 'menthol' affect with RGPs, that's why I quit wearing them. My eyes would feel horrid the next day. I didn't realize at the time, this is some years back, that this was probably me starting with DES.

[rubyslippers]

Your questions are a bit technical for my level of understanding. I got my severe dry eye 6 months ago when I had a bad reaction to topical antibiotics for bacterial pink eye. They did some permanent damage and are the mildest ones out there that can treat the bacterial form that I had. Then 2 months ago I got the bacterial pink eye again and had to use the very same antibiotics for a short time. We prevented damage that time but there was no alternative due to the very virulent form I had. I am also peri-menopausal and the first half of my cycle is very drying for my eyes making every minute uncomfortable. After ovulation I get about 30% improvement for those 2 short weeks and then "here we go again". Right now I am in my worst days, but would never know it thanks to these new contacts.

I don't make enough tears and I don't make quality tears. My doctor says that under his magnification, when I blink, my eye is dry before the blink is even complete. I did get permanent plugs in 3 ducts several weeks ago and that helped but I still could not wear my RGP's without a lot of discomfort. I have serious visual problems and cannot get correction with glasses or other kinds of contacts.

The skirt of the Synergeyes slightly holds the RGP center off the eye. It allows fluid to be under the contact itself. If my eyes begin to dry, I just put in drops and I can feel it go right under the skirt and actually hold the moisture to my eye. My dry eyes have always felt better where the cold and stinging symptoms are concerned if I have contacts on them. My bare eyes feel the air intensely and contacts prevent that to an extent. But I have so very little fluid that with the RGP's I could feel the edges rubbing because they did not float on the eye the way they are supposed to with normal tearing. I wore hard contacts for 35 years with absolutley no discomfort. I wore them from the moment I woke until last thing at night. I am also hearing impaired and lip read some so crisp vision is a must for me to function. With the Synergeyes, so far, I have good vision and comfort. They do need to adjust the bifocal part for me, but the doctor said that will be easy to do.

These contacts (this form) have been available to the public for about a year. They had another version before that, but had some issues of durability which have been corrected with these newer ones. I understand you have to replace them every 6 months but that cost is included in your initial price. They are somewhat more expensive, maybe $100 more than my regular bifocal RGP's, but that is more than worth it to me.

The only complaint was how hard they were to learn to remove. But each day got better and last night I got one out on the first try and the second out on the second try. The key is position of the fingers and the fingers being very, very dry when you attempt.

Right, now I could not be happier, but I worry that this is some sort of honeymoon and the magic will go away. Hopefully, this continues and that others will find the same results. I am the first patient my doctor has fitted with these, but he said optometrists are being trained all over the place so they can use these with many patients. There are several versions and some are designed for specific eye conditions, for people with corneal damage, for people who have had surgeries, etc. My doctor told me we might have to fit several times but at this point I think we are already close. I need a bit more bifocal correction and I wonder if the left one might be very slightly too snug (I feel that right at the end of the day).