Dry eyes with contact lenses is probably the most annoying side effect of wearing contact lenses. Following are some tips which will hopefully be of assistance to people who suffer from this. This article is meant as a general guide only, and if problems persist please discontinue wearing your lenses and get your eyes examined by your optometrist.
Lens choice.
Lens choice is very important as some lenses are significantly more dryness resistant than others. The best option is to go for a daily lens which is dryness resistant. Deposits on a lens will cause it to dry out more rapidly and daily lenses are the cleanest possible way to wear lenses. The Focus Dailies Aqua Release and 1-day Acuvue Moist are two daily lenses which are manufactured to include a wetting agent so that they resist dryness better. Recently two even better options have come along. These are the Dailies AquaComfort Plus and the Proclear 1-Day which have more advanced dryness resistant properties.
With lenses it is worth using a bit of trial and error to see what is best for you. Your optometrist will often give you a couple of lens types and you can see which is best for you. If you are unable to obtain trial lenses let us know your situation and also your current lenses and we will often be able to help.
Use artificial tears when you wear your lenses.
Refresh Plus in the individual vial daily packaging and Refresh Contacts in the eye drop bottle are quite good and are slightly thicker than other brands so it lasts better. Also AQuify Comfort Drops and Blink Contacts both in dropper bottles are quite good. If your eyes are dry, the more often you use these the better. The eye can hold one drop before over flowing, so one drop in each eye is good.
Solutions & lens care.
Always keep your lenses clean by rubbing them after wear if you are not wearing single use lenses. Dirty lenses dry out more.
Use solutions which help your lenses resist dryness. All the solutions we stock have dryness resistant properties. Different solutions work for different people so trying out a few is a good idea. The AO Sept Solution tends to keep lenses a little cleaner and this can help with dryness. With AO Sept it is important to read the instructions carefully as you can sting your eyes if you don't let it go right through the disinfection cycle.
Contact lens Massage
Give you eyes and lenses a 'contact lens massage'. This is where you close your eyes when they are feeling dry and rub your eyes gently through your closed eye lids for about 30 seconds. This will re-coat your lenses with moisture and make them feel better for a little while. It is important to rub with the main pressure in a downwards direction. If you rub them upwards you can push them up under your upper eye lids. This is non harmful but you can't see out of your lenses if they are under your upper eye lids and it is an inconvenience to pull them down again.
Let me know if you know of any other things that have helped for you.
Last updated January 30, 2009.
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