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Contact Lens Apps Can Increase Eye Health

Wearing contact lenses can be a great alternative to eyeglasses. But like any product you may rely on everyday, keeping up with the daily doldrums can be difficult. However, there is a new contact lens-related app in the app store that makes the contact lens experience a little easier.

LensFacts by Optifree offers many new tools and a depth of information relating to lens wear.

The first tool the app gives you is the “How’s it going?” page. Here you can log your daily eye comfort to track when your contact lenses become uncomfortable. It keeps data for the last 30 days in a personal Eye Log which can be extremely useful for patients who over wear lenses – or aren’t sure when the lenses should be thrown out. Contact lens over wear is a serious problem and I support any tool that might lead to increased compliance.

Speaking of contact lens compliance, the rate at which patients follow their doctor’s recommended throw away schedule is dismal. The LensFacts app keeps track of when you last put your lens in and when it should be tossed. It will even alert you or add a calendar event to remind you that you’ve reached you lens wear limit.

The contact lens app also gives you very good and concise info on contacts in general – including tips on inserting & removing, why generic solutions are a poor choice and other general interest articles. There is an “Ask The Expert” section, videos and ways to learn more about your contact lenses.

Lastly, the app allows you to save your doctor’s contact information, so if any questions or concerns arise you can contact your eye doctor immediately. Its important for any contact lens wearer to have a good relationship with their doctor in order to maintain healthy eyes.

I believe this new app is a handy tool for contact lens wearers to make sure their eyes are healthy today and remain healthy in the future.

Posted in: Contact Lenses, Technology

Contact Lenses Can Be a Risky Choice

A large part of our eye care practice centers around contact lenses. Quite often, patients will ask me about contacts that they don’t have to take out at night. My recommendation is that removing contact lenses nightly will always be the safest and healthiest way to wear lenses.

In fact, since the FDA approved contact lenses for continuous overnight wear, the rate of complications has actually increased due to more people engaging in this risky behavior.

The cornea is the clear front surface of the eye, and in order to be clear and transparent this tissue must be free of blood vessels. The cornea is the only part of the human body that doesn’t receive oxygen from blood vessels – instead it stays nourished by ‘breathing’ oxygen from the air. And when our eyes are closed the amount of oxygen drops by 97 percent.

Anytime you wear contact lenses, you’re affecting how much oxygen the cornea receives. Our bodies respond by growing new blood vessels onto the cornea, a process called neovascularization.

These new blood vessels don’t actually help the situation and can actually cause sight-threatening complications, including decreased vision and even blindness.

There’s no way to get rid of the new blood vessels once they grow. With time, and without contacts, the blood will go away and leave what we call “ghost vessels.” The vessels will make it easier for blood to return anytime the cornea is deprived of oxygen, which may affect how you wear contacts in the future.

I understand why it’s more convenient in the short term to leave contact lenses in, but you can do long term damage to your eye. My job as your eye doctor is to make sure your eyes are healthy today and remain healthy tomorrow.

Tags: Contact Lenses, eye doctor, ghost vessels, neaovascularization, optometrist

Posted in: Contact Lenses, Eye Health

Forget the Contact Lens Solution, Here’s Beer in Your Eye

ROCHESTER, N.Y.—Baby oil, beer, Coke, petroleum jelly, lemonade, fruit juice and butter are among the substances some contact lens wearers occasionally use instead of contact lens solution, a new Bausch + Lomb study revealed.

The study, which polled 2,000 adults in the U.K. in August 2011, found that 20 percent reported using these and other unconventional and dangerous lubricants when putting lenses in their eyes. In addition, an overwhelming proportion of respondents reported using saliva or tap water as a solution when putting lenses in their eyes. The average adult mouth contains 500 to 650 different types of bacteria. Both tap and distilled water may contain micro-organisms that can cause damage to the eye and have been associated with Acanthamoeba keratitis, a corneal infection that is resistant to treatment, according to B+L.

“It’s crucial for contact lens wearers to follow proper contact lens hygiene to maintain eye health and to keep their lenses clean and comfortable,” said Michael Pier, OD, director of professional relations, Bausch + Lomb, makers of Biotrue, a multi-purpose contact lens solution. “To take the best care possible of your lenses, avoid methods of cleaning disinfection and lubrication that have not been approved for use with contact lenses and recommended by your eyecare professional. It is important to stick with the multi-purpose solution you’ve discussed with your doctor.”

Tags: b+l, bausch + lomb, Contact Lenses, eye doctor, eye health, multipupose solutions, optometrist, solution

Posted in: Contact Lenses, Eye Health

Minor League Baseball Player 'Sees' Contact Lenses Helping Him To The Majors

Bryce Harper was picked first overall by the Washington Nationals in last year’s Major League Baseball draft. And for the first half of his first season, he was a pretty mediocre ball player.

But that changed last month when Harper was fitted with contact lenses by the team’s optometrist. All of the sudden, Bryce Harper’s stats have been off the charts – and he even hit his first grand slam.

As of this post, Harper has hit safely in 16 straight games and his batting average during this hit streak is a staggering .492.

Keith Smithson, the Washington Nationals’ team optometrist was quoted telling Harper, “I don’t know how you ever hit before. You have some of the worst eyes I’ve ever seen.”

So how did Harper get this far with such poor vision?

“I needed [the contacts] in college,” he said. “But I tried them for a while in high school, and they gave me headaches really bad. So I just got by without them. But these are a new kind [of lenses], and they really help. The difference [in vision] is huge.”

Once he began wearing the contacts Harper was a believer, saying “It was like I was seeing in HD.”

Athletes require precise vision, and even small refractive errors can have detrimental effects on their game. If you’re an athlete, perhaps checking your vision every six months can ensure you stay at the top of your game.

Tags: baseball, Contact Lenses, contacts, eye care, eye doctor, optometrist, sports vision, vision

Posted in: Contact Lenses

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