Wearing contacts to alliviate dry eyes - thoughts about this much welcomed!

[sunshinelover]

My doc wants me to wear contacts to be comfortable. They should protect my corneas and so I would not have so much symptoms. However, since contacts gave med GPC and dry eyes in my 20s - and was the reason why I had refractive surgery already in the 80s to get rid of my -12 glasses . it scares the hell out of me.

Two opticians in the eye hospitals where I go, said they both had dry eyes that felt much better with contacts (and drops). One optician used here lenses for a wholeweek, sleeping in them, and she suggested that I should do the same! She looked at my eyes and said my tear film was very watery, almost no lipids, nothing,which explains my TBUT of 2 sec. Anyway, I got a bunch of lenses with me and I have now tried Acuvue Dailies, the new Ciba Vision Total Dailys and the Acuvue Oasys (the oneweeklense, but I have NOT slept with it)- Since I can no longer open my eyes in the morning due to the dryness, I wouldn't dare to sleep wiht a lense inside!
Anyway, I am amazed by this new typw of lense - I cannot feel them at all, they are totally comfortable, even with my dry eyes!! This was not the case with the old lense type in the 80s. So sure, I can wear them. but do they make things better? I do not know, since my symptoms fluctuates so much. Since my vision with them is not good, I can normally onlooy have one in at a time if I shall be abale to work at the computer (need computer glasses). Also, since my vision also fluctuates so much it adds another factor to the already difficult vision situation, which high astigmatism, a couple of different glasses, and big difference between the eyes. After changing the IOL in one eye I have no closeup vision on that eye. But vision is the minor problem, dry eye is the worst. Now - I am sc ared if this lense regimen could make my dry eye even worse in the long run?? Since I understand that is what has happened to some people.
But I am amazed that I really can wear the lenses at all!!
Any opinions on contact to alleviate symptoms of dry eye, please, would be most appreciated.

[Hemu]

I would go to a dry eye specialist and talk about this. The only theraupatic contact lenses for dry eyes that I know of are the Boston sclerals which are usually reserved for the extreme cases.

Contact lenses in general are not good for your eyes and have shown to affect the mebomium glands. There are studies out there for that, one of them is the following:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19167077

My dry eye specialist is against contact lenses for my case, my tbut is low(around 4 seconds).

[Katewest]

What about synergeyes and piggy backs?

[sunshinelover]

I would go to a dry eye specialist and talk about this. The only theraupatic contact lenses for dry eyes that I know of are the Boston sclerals which are usually reserved for the extreme cases.

Contact lenses in general are not good for your eyes and have shown to affect the mebomium glands. There are studies out there for that, one of them is the following:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19167077

My dry eye specialist is against contact lenses for my case, my tbut is low(around 4 seconds).

Thanks, I am going to refer to this study when seeing the optician again next month. Beleive it or not, by the eye doc IS the dry eye specialist . This is what makes it difficult, and he just refer to the optician regarding the lenses.

The synergeyes and piggy backs I never heard of. May be they dont exist here.... what are these?

[Katewest]

Synergeyes are hard lenses with a soft skirt. Piggybacks are soft lenses with a hard lens on top. From what I understand they are more therapeutic than regular soft lenses.

[jax8it]

Hi,

I am seeing a corneal specialist who wants me to try sclerals for dry eye. I had lasik and I am really hoping this will help. Good luck to you.

[Pinklady]

My daughter suffers from recurrent corneal erosions and we have tried a variety of treatments. She currently has Bandage Contact Lens in 24/7 for about a month at a time. Not ideal I know but they really seem to help her. (She is only 3 so rather difficult to change them everyday) She also has hourly lubricating eye drops (hylo-forte). This suggestion has come from the Cornea specialists who we see. I think her eyes are the most comfortable they have ever been. Hope this is of help

[Katewest]

I'm going through the same thing. I've never worn contacts but am trying soft lenses first then the Synergeyes. Soft really didnt make a big difference so I am hoping I'll see some improvement with the harder options. The next step if those don't work being scleral. I have a very slight astigmatism so I wear glasses, but I'll keep the glasses even if the contacts work out.

[Katewest]

Soft contacts didn't really help my dry eye so my doc is ordering hard to try. He is reluctant and thinks they won't help though.

[sunshinelover]

HI, Here is an update on the lense issue. I have now come to the conlusion that wearing contacts actually do help!! Is is weird for me to admit it, but I am now rather addicyted to wearing at least one contact in my worst eye everyt day. Without it, is feel like hell. I cant however, use contacts on both eyes at work, since then no one of my glasses work of the computer. So now I put my terminal glasses on which then only fit the eye without the lense. Unfortunately, the lense that I am wearing do not come in the procription that I would need for my right eye, i.e +0,5 or at least 0.00. It just come in minus strenghts, so I use a -0.5 if I want to go out in the evening on Saturdays (the only evening I can go out, in the weekdays my eyes are finished after work!
Anyway, before I go to bed I take the lense out, and this is why I realize it is helping, since the eye WITHOUT a lense feel so much worse! I feel like I would like to take something out of THAT eye instead, but there is nothing. So, the lense that I wear is CIBA Vision Dailys Total 1. It is impossible to feel that lense in the eye which is amazing, since my eyes are so dry. I still need drops and stuff, and some days the eyes are to bad to know if anything helps, but in total.... If my worst eye feels better then the other eye while wearing a lense in it I must admit it is helping at least somewhat...

[patientpatrick]

This is interesting because a dry eye specialist i saw recently suggested using safigel 1day disposables, the ones that release the hydrolanic acid. I haven't tried it yet, because to be blunt I hated wearing contacts. It's so stupid and ironic really, if I got these type of contacts to begin with I would never have gotten Lasik.

[No tears in ATL]

Are you all in the U.S.? I see a cornea specialist who does see many dry eye patients, but no mention of anything besides the Boston lens. As far as soft contact lenses are concerned, those are considered off limits for me.

I think the underlying reason for that is because we believe 20 years of contact lens wear reduced my corneal sensitivity and caused my dry eye to begin with. Did your doctors mention that at all as a possible risk? Just comparing notes, here.

Is there a website link to some of these products that I could research? Would be nice to know I am not confined to glasses the rest of my life.

[sunshinelover]

This is interesting because a dry eye specialist i saw recently suggested using safigel 1day disposables, the ones that release the hydrolanic acid. I haven't tried it yet, because to be blunt I hated wearing contacts. It's so stupid and ironic really, if I got these type of contacts to begin with I would never have gotten Lasik.

Yeah, I agree. Although in my case when I did the surgery in the 80s and 90s these types of lenses didnt exist, the contacts of those days were no good, made my eyes dry and GPC and was the reason for my surgery.

[sunshinelover]

Are you all in the U.S.? I see a cornea specialist who does see many dry eye patients, but no mention of anything besides the Boston lens. As far as soft contact lenses are concerned, those are considered off limits for me.

I think the underlying reason for that is because we believe 20 years of contact lens wear reduced my corneal sensitivity and caused my dry eye to begin with. Did your doctors mention that at all as a possible risk? Just comparing notes, here.

Is there a website link to some of these products that I could research? Would be nice to know I am not confined to glasses the rest of my life.

I am in Sweden. Here they do not think that contacts cause dry eyes except for some cicumstances I dont remember. For ex when wearing hard contacts the cornea is desensitized but it recovers when not wearing it. These lenses that has come now are spmething completely different, and they let so much oxygene in so it is almost no difference to not wearing lenses, and they adjust perfectly to the cornea. It is totally impossible to feel the lense, which is amazing. I would check Ciba visions homepage, but is not so much info except a video, it is their most expensive lense I think. I get it for free so far. I would give it a try, although everyone is different of course.