Contact Lens Options For Me?

[pillowpopper]

These past few years I've noticed a huge problem - I can't wear contact lenses anymore.  All through high school (I'm only 21) I wore them basically every single day.  Now my eyes don't even last a half hour without irritating me and drying out.

Right now I wear Acuvue Oaysis, which is supposed to be the best lenses for dry eyes.  My ophthalmologist told me that my eyes are so dry that they are sucking all of the water out of my lenses, causing them to become completely dry and painful.  I've tried everything - rewetting drops, different solutions, not wearing them for a few weeks at a time, but it doesn't matter... every time I put them in my eyes, I have to take them out again.

I plan on going back soon to get another fitting.  But I wanted to know ahead of time if there are any other brands or materials of soft contact lenses (I really can't afford anything else) that we should look into?

Thanks for your help!

[John C Hagan III, MD, FACS, FAAO]

-

[JodieJ]

Try 1-Day Acuvue Moist (my personal favorite) or Extreme H20.  The 1-Day Acuvue TruEye (the first one-day disposable silicone hydrogel contact) is currently available in the UK only, but it's supposed to be available in the USA next year.

[bad eyes]

I have the same problem.  I found that for me the 1-day Acuvue was a better choice than the Acuvue Oasis (all the solutions dried out my eyes).  I then used Restasis and had all four puncti permanently plugged.  After 3 months of faithful Restasis use and allowing my eye to get used to having the punctal plugs, I've had significant improvement and can successfully wear contacts.  I also take 2 mg of fish oil per day (good for dry eye).

[John C Hagan III, MD, FACS, FAAO]

The likelihood of you continuing CTL is not good.  your fitter can advise you and you can use the search feature on this page to pull up discussions of contacts and dry eyes.

Your best options are glasses or lasik.

JCH MD