Contact Lens Intolerance

For many patients, dry eyes and contact lenses are mutually exclusive.

Over 60 million people worldwide suffer from dry eye, and an estimated 30 million bottles of artificial tears were sold in 2002. Dryness accounts for one of every five visits to the eye doctor’s office.

Although this range could vary in each practice, depending on one’s location and other factors, it is disconcerting that one of every two contact lens patients could be experiencing dryness.

Contact Lens Intolerance (CLI) is a catch-all description of a condition — a diagnosis of inclusion consisting of a vast array of causes from anatomical and physiological, to the psychological. CLI may be total, occasional, periodic, or seasonal. It might result from a pre-existing condition or be acquired through contact lens abuse. Anything that can negatively affect a patient’s relationship to his contact lenses can result in lens intolerance.

CLI sufferers typically cannot apply a lens to their eye without pain, injection, and excess tearing from the eyes. They may once have worn their contact lenses for all of their waking hours but now hesitate to use them even for the occasional social event.

What are we doing to address this problem? We use state-of-the-art rewetting agents, such as Blink eye drops, punctal plugs, as well as a host of dietary tips like flaxseed oil capsules, Omega-3 oil capsules and so forth.

We try innovative lens materials, such as Proclear, Extreme H2O and silicone hydrogels, and we prescribe topical allergy medications as well. But the problem persists. A popular lens is Acuvue Oasys. As for new dry eye treatments for contact lens wearers, many eye doctors now prescribe cyclosporine ophthalmic emulsion 0.05% (Restasis), which works well in many cases.

It is also true that people who are life-long wearers of contact lenses may be damaging their eyes. That is because no matter how “oxygen-permeable” a lens is designed to be, less oxygen reaches the cornea when a lens is present on the eye, period.

One potential problem from long-term contact lens usage is the growth of abnormal new blood vessels due to the restriction of oxygen to the eye surface. Other more common side effects to lens usage are dryness, irritation and itchiness. Contact lenses are not recommended for people who are predisposed to dry eyes or infections.

Our Advice:

Consider the benefits of iLASIK™, a blade-free vision correction treatment available at Bense Vision™. It means cutting out any risks involved with the use of contact lenses. No more contacts. And save money to boot.