The majority of contact lens wearers do not comply with safe contact lens practices, according to a new study from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center. Of the more than 400 contact lens wearers surveyed, more than 80 percent believe they follow good practices while only 2 percent actually do so. Read more…
Wearing contact lenses during sleep and poor lens hygiene can lead to vision-threatening eye infections. Recently one U.K. journalist developed microbial keratitis, an infection of the cornea, after overnight contact lens wear and occasionally rinsing her contacts with tap water.
The 24-year-old journalist first noticed something was wrong when she woke up with pain in her left eye. Her eye turned red and teary with a red rim around the iris, and she became sensitive to light. Read more…
Halos and glare are common and bothersome symptoms for eyeglass and contact lens wearers alike, according to a new multi-nation study.
Halos are rings that appear around light sources such as street lamps and headlights; glare is the difficulty of seeing in the presence of bright light. Most people who experience these symptoms reported they were most likely to be bothered by them in the evening and when driving at night. Read more…
WSB-TV 2 Action News in Atlanta recently uncovered several instances of theatrical contact lenses and other color contacts being sold illegally in the Atlanta area.
One woman, who purchased tinted, non-prescription color contact lenses without a prescription at an Atlanta flea market for about $20, ended up with a serious eye infection requiring medical treatment. Read more…
Researchers may have found a new way to effectively treat a serious contact lens-related eye infection called Acanthamoeba keratitis: topical application of riboflavin (vitamin B2), followed by exposure to select wavelengths of UV light (UVA).
In a study conducted by The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine (Baltimore, Md.), two patients with confirmed cases of the infection and one patient with a presumed case — all characterized by painful corneal ulcers that were resistant to conventional medical treatment — underwent two 30-minute sessions of the vitamin B2/UVA photochemical therapy. Read more…
You can lower your risk of contact lens-related eye problems simply by following the lens replacement schedule specified by your eye doctor.
Researchers at the Centre for Contact Lens Research, University of Waterloo, evaluated the relationship between compliance with doctor-recommended lens replacement frequency and contact lens-related problems in a population of 501 contact lens wearers. All participants were patients at seven optometry practices in Canada, and all wore silicone hydrogel contact lenses. Read more…
Many contact lens wearers fail to use fresh contact lens solution each time they store their contacts, choosing instead to “top off” existing multipurpose solution in their lens case. Some lens wearers also fail to recap their storage cases, which causes some of the solution to evaporate, affecting its concentration.
Because non-compliance with proper lens care is a significant factor in contact lens-related eye infections — including fungal eye infections and Acanthamoeba keratitis — researchers at Abbott Medical Optics recently investigated the impact of partial evaporation of popular multipurpose contact lens solutions on their disinfecting effectiveness. Read more…
Swimming in any body of water — including chlorinated swimming pools — increases your risk of eye infection from bacteria and other micro-organisms. This is true particularly if you wear contact lenses when swimming, because these microscopic “bugs” can attach themselves to your contacts or get trapped under your lenses, giving them more time to cause problems. Read more…
Accumulation of bacteria on the surface of contact lenses is a major cause of contact lens-related eye infections. The key to preventing this buildup is disrupting the formation of biofilms in contact lens deposits, according to a new study.
By breaking apart the structure of biofilms — complex formations of microorganisms that excrete a protective and adhesive matrix on the surface of contact lenses during wear — researchers have found that the bacteria on the lens become much more Read more…
Children who wear contact lenses have fewer dry eye complaints than adult wearers, according to a new study.
Researchers recruited 94 pediatric contact lens wearers, ages 8 to 14. All subjects completed the Contact Lens Dry Eye Questionnaire (CLDWQ) short form, a survey designed to diagnose dry eyes by obtaining information on the frequency of dryness symptoms and light sensitivity within the first two hours of contact lens wear, in the middle of the day and at the end of a full day of lens wear. Read more…
Young contact lens wearers and those with high myopia appear to have a greater risk of lens-related complications.
Researchers at Indiana University School of Optometry (Bloomington, Ind.) performed a retrospective study of 1,276 soft contact lens wearers to evaluate risk factors for inflammation, eye infection and other contact lens-related complications over a period of at least two years.
A total of 18 percent of those evaluated had some degree of complications from contact lens wear during the study period.
Wearers younger than 25 were more likely to experience eye inflammation, eye infection and other symptoms that may or may not be related to contact lens wear. Read more…
Wearing contact lenses is a risk factor for the development of abnormal tissue growth on the surface of the eye called a pinguecula, according to a new study.
Researchers at the University of Tokyo Graduate School of Medicine examined 600 contact lens wearers and 579 non-wearers between the ages of 10 and 60 to evaluate the incidence and severity of pingueculae, using a standardized grading system. Among the contact lens wearers, 506 wore soft contacts and 94 wore hard lenses.
The study revealed an age-related increase in pingueculae among both contact lens wearers and non-wearers. The grade of pingueculae at the temporal conjunctiva (the clear coating of the portion of the white of the eye that is closer to the subject’s ear) was higher among contact lens wearers than among those who did not wear contacts. Read more…
