Once patients reach a certain age of responsibility they start to
worry about their ocular health and how contact lenses will affect their
vision. Fears of medical complications will start to influence wear time
for some patients. Let me ease some fears and emphasizes some good
practices.
Replacement
schedules with contact lenses are a crucial step in staying in line with
healthy eyes. The doctor will recommend replacing lenses within a certain
time. Most are either daily, biweekly, monthly and a small few are
quarterly. Feel free to check online how
often your brand should be replaced, in case your doctor skipped over that part
during the exam.
Lens brands are
extremely important when deciding the hours of wear and continued days of wear.
If you've been refit into a higher oxygen lens in the last ten years,
you're already doing a good job. These lenses will allow the cornea to
continue to breath and receive proper nutrition. Therefore 12-14 hour wear
schedules are more readily allowed in recent history, assuming patients are
removing and disinfecting on a nightly basis. However keep in mind these
lenses will eventually accumulate too much debris to continue to give good
comfort and safe wear. Hence replacement, as discussed in the previous
paragraph, is very important. Older brands do not allow this freedom of
wear. The oxygen levels are much lower and sharing wear time with glasses
is more often recommended. The lower oxygen brands (which are still in
high circulation) should be worn no more then 10 hours a day and skipping wear
days is recommended once weekly. I would suggest discussing a new fit
with your doctor to increase your flexibility of wear.
I still generally
think it's a great idea to give your eyes a break from contact lenses,
regardless of brand. Not so much for safety but to reduce any mechanical
irritation the lids experience with these gentle plastics. Allowing your
body to discard any extra mucus will never hurt. Let's say it's a
recommendation of respect for your eyes and not an immediate necessity.
See and Be Seen! at Eyed LA Optometry in Brentwood, West Los Angeles
www.eyedla.com
No comments:
Post a Comment