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All Posts Tagged Tag: ‘MK’
The problem of taking risks
We had a contact lens patient’s mother in today to order her son more contact lenses. She was concerned that he was on occasions sleeping in them, despite being clearly instructed by us not to.
Statistically, sleeping in contact lenses is the number one risk of eye infections in contact lens wear – every one of our new contact lens patients has had this explained to them, and the reasons why it is a bad idea.
I recently had a young girl woman in Kingscourt on a Saturday afternoon for a routine contact lens check. When questioned, she denied ever sleeping in them, and told me that she had put them in at 9.00am that morning. After looking at her eyes with the slit lamp, there were clearly signs suggestive that she was not being “entirely truthful”. She wore daily disposable contact lenses which are unsuitable for overnight wear, at all, ever.
I asked her “When was the last time you slept with the lenses in?”.
She replied “last night”.
“So how long have you had them in for?”.
“I put them in on Wednesday”!
The problem is that, when you are told you should not do something, and you do it (perhaps accidentally) it is maybe not unreasonable to think “They said I shouldn’t do that, BUT I CAN, I was OK”. That is the way we perceive risk- by our individual experience. Statistically, young men are the worst for not heeding advise about what they should and should not do with contact lenses, and statistically they are the group most likely to present with Microbial Keratitis.
Statistics are they way we should assess risk, not by our own experience. Drink drivers are more likely to crash cars than sober people – FACT, most people would agree with that, but many who do drink drive think that they are OK, because they have “done it for years and never had an accident”.
I advised a lady once that she should not spit on her contact lenses before putting them in, she should use contact lens conditioning solution, to which she told me that she had been doing that since I was in nappies! That might be true, but as I advised her, that doesn’t make it a good idea, though it was obvious she was never going to listen.
No-one would ever think that playing Russian Roulette with one bullet in six chambers is a good idea, nor would they argue that “I did it, I’m OK, I can do it” Everyone knows there is a 1 in 6 chance of being wrong, and also that eventually you would blow your head off- it probably will not take too many turns to achieve it. Very few people would ever consider playing that game. The risks of contact lens infections are much, much less than blowing a hole in your head playing Russian Roulette, but do not think “I’m OK I can do it”- sight is precious, you only get two eyes, and they need to last you a lifetime.
And like silly games with guns, you could have a problem the very first time! Though it is true that infections increase with every consecutive night of sleeping with them in, and overwearers are more likely to fall prey to infection, there is a chance it could be you, first time, next time…
Estimates are that approximately 15-20 in every 100000 soft contact lens wearers per year will suffer a microbial keratitis, and there are probably a lot more than 15-20 in every 100 thousand lens wearers who are complete lunatics, doing everything wrong and mostly getting away with it, but don’t take the chance.
There is a refresher “Contact Lens Dos and Don’ts” here. If you are a contact lens wearer it will take 2 minutes to read it.
Microbial Keratitis – Again
There is a Facebook page called DangerInContactLenses, highlighting, obviously the danger in contact lenses. The lady who set up the page had a very unfortunate experience with soft contact lenses, which caused her to be in hospital for many weeks, and eventually, after 22 operations she had to have one of her eyes removed.
An outcome like this is the worst case scenario possible, but it is up to each individual contact lens wearer to minimise their risk.
Always wash and thoroughly dry your hands before applying and removing contact lenses, and whenever possible before touching them at any other time.
Use the solutions recommended by your eye care practitioner, and use them properly. Do not reuse contact lens solutions- the case must be emptied each and every morning and allowed to air dry. Even if the solution you use says that it is a “No Rub” formula, rub them!!! A ten second rub and rinse will reduce the contamination on the lens one hundred thousand fold, meaning that the solution has less microbes to deal with overnight.
Never use tap water with contact lenses, it is not clean enough. For the same reason, swimming, hot tubs, baths and showers should be done without contact lenses.
There have been studies investigating the efficacy of contact lens solutions against various types of microbes, and some do perform better than others- that is why we would always recommend Alcon solutions, as there has never been any question marks hanging over this brand.
It is as well to point out that own brand solutions, be they from the supermarket or elsewhere, will advise that they were manufactured by, or for the chain. But who actually manufactures the solution??
Contact Lenses are safe, but care is required.
Microbial Keratitis – minimise your risk
A recent study has shown that the risks of Contact Lens related adverse effects are no lower in Silicone Hydrogel (SiH) contact lenses than in more traditional HEMA lower oxygen performance lenses. The study found that there may actually be an increase in adherence of bacteria on SiH lenses compared to HEMA.
SiH lenses are still better for the health of the eyes, because they allow so much more Oxygen through to the cornea, meaning that there are less restrictions in wear time than traditional soft lenses. Unfortunately most people do overwear HEMA lenses, which can cause changes in the cornea. Though many of these corneal changes are not permanent, and they are up to a point acceptable in a HEMA lens wearer, they are still undesirable.
Contact Lens wear is safe, but this study highlights the importance of always giving the contact lenses a rub and rinse before storing them in fresh solution overnight, and also reinforces the fact that sleeping in contact lenses, even occasionally, is riskier than not doing it.
The article can be read in full here, you may need to register or login to view it.
