Are you Tearing or Ripping your Soft Contacts Frequently?

Sometimes we have patients who have torn or ripped a contact once or more than once. They wonder what they did wrong. Here is some advice if this is you.

1. Avoid touching your contacts with your nails or pinching them too tight with the pads of your fingers.
2. If they are not approved to sleep in, don't. For more reasons than just tearing (see blog post about taking care of contacts), but sleeping in contacts dehydrates them, making them more brittle. When you take them out they are more likely to tear.
3. Dehydrated contacts are more likely to tear. If your eyes are dry or your contacts are dry by the end of the day you might want to try using rewetting drops throughout the day. They can be found in any pharmacy over the counter.
4. Put rewetting drops in 2-3 minutes before removing your contacts to make sure they are less rigid.

Picture from Bausch and Lomb Canada

1. Rewetting drops might be more important for our older patients who produce fewer tears and lower quality tears.
2. Always put your contacts in fresh solution every time you remove them and fill them up to the top of the lines in your case to make sure they are sufficently submerged every time.
3. Leave your contacts in the solution for 10 minutes before taking them out and rubbing them or rinsing them.
4. Always use good quality solutions such as OptiFree Pure Moist or ClearCare. The moisture particles in these solutions are small enough to fit in the pores of the contacts and stay with you throughout the day, opposed to wiping off as you blink.

If you consistantly have issues with tearing contacts and you are really good about caring for your contacts always check with your optometrist to see what your options are for replacing the torn ones, better care options for your particular lenses or trying a different type of contact lens.

Learn more about Opti-Free and taking care of contacts at: http://www.opti-free.com/

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Protect your Eyes this Summer

Jimmy Crystal Sunglasses

            Summer is when people start thinking about sunglasses and rightfully so. The sun seems to be blazing through our windshields with twice the power it normally seems to. The question becomes, are you doing everything you need to to protect your eyes from the harmful rays of the sun? The dangers of tanning are hot in the news now, but it is always a popular topic in the eyecare world. Just like slathering your kids with sunscreen before they go in the sun, everybody's eyes also need protection from the sun.

Think about sunglasses as sunscreen for your eyes because they are not immune to the sun's harmful rays.

What can happen if eyes go unprotected?

            According to the American Optometric Association, if your eyes go unprotected and are exposed to the suns rays it can lead to macular degeneration, cataracts, or even skin disease on the sensitive skin around the eyes. Other less serious conditions could be growths on the eyes or even sunburn. These could cause redness, irritation, tearing, decreased vision, or in extreme cases even blindness.


Oakley's Fuel Cell made from Recycled Materials

What can you do to protect your eyes?

1. It is recommended that everytime you are exposed to the sun you wear some form of sunprotection such as sunglasses, clip-on sunglasses, or Transitions lenses. This is recommended whether the sun is at full strength or even if it is a cloudy day.

2. When choosing sunglasses make sure to choose a pair that provides 100% UV protection. If you choose sunglasses that do not provide adequate protection it could be worse than not wearing anything at all. This is because the tint on the lenses cause your eyes to dilate and let more into your eyes, but the lenses are not blocking any UV.

3. Sun protection is not just for adults also consider getting sunglasses, sports glasses, or transitions for children. Just like with skin damage, most sun damage to the eyes happens before the age of 18.

4. Wear sunglasses all year round. If you pick up a pair of polarized sunglasses which greatly reduce glare it will make driving in snow much more comfortable.

5. Choose sunglasses with grey lenses. They make color vision more natural than amber or brown lenses.

Information provided by:

http://www.aoa.org/x15026.xml

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