Every pair of new contact lenses comes with a list of scrupulous instructions for their care and maintenance, a list too many lens wearers disregard or skip, eye doctors say.
”Patient compliance with instructions is probably one of the biggest issues with contact lenses today,” said Dr. Roy Wesley, president of the National Eye Research Foundation in Northbrook. ”The truth is, noncompliance is very common.”
Doctors say they cannot be sure how many contact lens wearers fail to clean their lenses properly, but say almost all eye infections in lens wearers can be traced back to poor cleaning habits.
”A week doesn`t go by that I don`t see someone who has developed an infection because he or she doesn`t want to take the time to clean lenses properly,” said Dr. Louis Wilson, professor of ophthalmology at Emory University in Atlanta. ”People want to keep it simple, so they take shortcuts.”
Several eye doctors attending a seminar on the 100th anniversary of contact lenses said they believe many people initially clean their lenses diligently, then slack off over time.
LENS ROULETTE
”It`s like playing roulette,” said Dr. Michael Larkin, professor of ocular disease at Southern California College of Optometry in Fullerton.
However, doctors also said there are lens wearers who have few problems despite poor cleaning habits. Although they do not condone skipping rigorous cleaning instructions, the doctors said some people apparently can get by with less diligent lens care than others.
Some 24 million Americans, or roughly 10 percent of the population, wear contact lenses. Of those, 80 percent have the soft, hydrophilic lenses that are comfortable on the eyes but more difficult to clean than traditional lenses made of hard plastics.
Most soft lenses are made up of 50 percent water, making them feel smooth to the back of the eyelid. The almost nonexistent friction means the lenses can be worn for weeks, even months, in comfort.
But, the high water content makes such lenses perfect breeding grounds for bacteria and viruses within the eye, doctors said.
Also, protein found in teardrops builds up on soft lenses, making them cloudy and useless after a period of time ranging from several months to several years, depending on the individual, doctors said.
3-STEP ROUTINE
Most people who wear soft contact lenses must do three things on a daily or weekly basis: clean the grime, pollution and makeup off their lenses, disinfect them to kill germs and, finally, remove the protein build-up that accumulates from tears.
Originally, people disinfected their lenses by placing them in a sterile saline solution, then boiling them overnight in a heating unit that eventually caused distortion and discoloration.
In the last five years, most wearers have switched over to cold chemical solutions that keep lenses in good shape but are more expensive. The solutions also can cause eye irritation if not rinsed off completely.
It is estimated the average lens wearer spends $150 a year on solutions to clean, disinfect and remove protein from lenses. Doctors said they sometimes fear their patients disinfect their lenses less often than they should in an attempt to save money.
However, cleaning lenses eventually may become obsolete. Two companies have introduced disposable contact lenses that are worn a week then thrown away, without ever being cleaned.
The doctors said disposable contacts also may be misused by people seeking to save time and money. ”People are going to extend from one week to two weeks to two months, and the problems will still be there,” Wilson said. –
