Why do people wear contact lenses? It seems like a simple reason. You visit your eye doctor's office and mention how you would like to be free of glasses. You tell him or her that you want to go out to dinner without having to worry about glasses or you want your wedding pictures to be glasses-free. Perhaps you have worn them in the past and you just like the vision they produce. Whatever the reason, more often than not it is usually a life-style choice. The doctor calculates a few numbers, grabs some trial lenses, takes a look at the fit, and then sends you off with a fresh pair of contacts to order. It seems like a pretty seamless process, right? For a majority of the population it usually is. However, have you ever thought about contact lenses as being a medical necessity rather than a "life-style choice"? Some people actually require contact lenses not only to see, but also to see comfortably. A high amount of astigmatism, large differences in prescriptions between the two eyes, certain post-surgical patients, and certain degenerative corneal diseases are a handful of issues that actually require contact lenses. These patients have difficulty wearing glasses due to either the discomfort created from wearing glasses or the inability to see with glasses. Another potential benefit of wearing contact lenses for these specific patients is to maintain the health of the cornea.
Unfortunately, a lot of these patients have little success with traditional forms of correction. These are very special eyes that require special customized lenses using a complicated fitting process. For post surgical patients something called a scleral lens is a very viable option. The sclera is the white part of your eyes. The lens gained its name from the idea that it rests on the sclera rather than the clear cornea of the eye. This allows the cornea to be bathed in the eye's natural tears, providing excellent vision and health. For high astigmatism patients, I recommend the Duette lens from Synergeyes. Patients also find this to be very comfortable and vision is much better than any astigmatism lens available. There are no problems with lens "rotation" which causes those annoying moments of temporary blur.
So ask your eye doctor if you are a candidate for these specialty lenses and special fitting procedures, especially if you have had very little success with traditional glasses, contact lenses, or are not a candidate for vision correction surgery. Have a great week, and I hope you see your best!
Mr. Higley,
ReplyDeleteI read the information posted on your blog and was wondering how this might effect people who have chronic dry eye, which as you know, makes contact lenses very difficult to wear. Your blog mentioned that the lens rests on the sclera which "allows the cornea to be bathed in the eye's natural tears". Do you feel this could be a contact lens alternative for people like me?
Thank you,
Red-eye
Red-eye,
DeleteThank you for your post! You are very correct in stating that dry eyes usually reduce the amount of time one can where contact lenses. Recently, scleral lenses have been shown to be effective in treating patients with severe dryness issues when conventional forms of treatment have failed. However, this usually applies to patients who have very severe forms of the disease. The lenses act as a protective barrier to the cornea and effectively manage any corneal compromise brought on as a side effect of the disease. Patients with such problems as graft-versus-host disease, Steven-Johnsons syndrome, or ocular cicatricial pemphigoid generally have extremely dry compromised corneas in which scleral lenses have been shown to help. Additionally, they are usually on maximum dry eye therapy as prescribed by their eye doctors. I am not entirely sure of your history, but I would say for the general population suffering from dry eye this is not usually the treatment of choice. However, as a contact lens alternative scleral lenses may be an option. I would recommend taking an omega 3 supplement, warm compresses twice a day, and preservative free artificial tears throughout the day. If that does not help with dryness I recommend visiting your eye doctor for an evaluation. I hope that helped!