any of you use day and night contacts?

any of you use day and night contacts?

You can sleep in them and stuff right



You cannot sleep/nap in normal contacts can you?

 

yes

 

how many days do you wear them?

 

maximum 30 days

 

None now. Have gone non-stop for 3 days in the past. No problem

 

I discussed exactly this with my own optometrist nearly a year ago and
he seemed shocked and said oh no, this is very dangerous! I get
patients all the time with infections and diseases from sleeping in
their contacts! I searched the internet and he is right, your risks
increase at least tenfold if you sleep in contacts and those are 30 day
wear so the risk is quite big. Ive discusssed this with other
optometrists and its the general concensus that its OK if you
occasionally sleep in them then take them out in the morning to give
your eyes fresh air for a couple hours before inserting them back in.
Never keep them on day after day for weeks at end. OrthoK would be much
safer and something I personally am looking to try. You sleep in those,
however they come off in the day and all day your eyes get oxygen and
clear vision. After some time you only need to sleep in them 1 or 2
nights a week! The rest of the time you are free to enjoy clear
uncorrected vision! Spockie, this is something you might be interested
in as well! Personally I am supprised why orthoK isnt more popular for
low and sometimes moderate myopes over laser surgury! Ok so what if its
a tiny bit of hassle to take 2-5 minutes to insert, remove and clean
your contacts? Much preferred over the risks and permanence of laser
surgury

 

Ortho-K is not necessarily any safer: the data to quantify the various risk
factors is just not available yet.

There appears to have been 50 confirmed cases of MK since 2001, with 88% of
these being in asian eyes (which is probably reflective of the wearing
demographics). What is of concern is 30% of the reported cases involved
acanthamoebal infections.

Inappropriate lens care procedures, patient noncompliance with practitioner
instructions, and persisting in lens wear despite discomfort emerged as
potential risk factors.

Source: Eye Contact Lens. 2005 Sep;31(5):201-8,

 

"Ortho-K is not necessarily any safer: the data to quantify the various
risk
factors is just not available yet."

OrthoK is much safer than extended 7 and 30 day continious wear contact
lenses. Its probably almost as safe as regular wear contacts and some
claim its as safe because orthoK is very oxygen permable, much more so
than most soft contacts. Plus durning the day you arent wearing
anything at all so your eyes get all the oxygen they need.


"There appears to have been 50 confirmed cases of MK since 2001"

Thats about 10 cases per year. I think this super low risk is worth it.
There is many, many times more cases of all kinds of complications with
laser surgury. Of course glasses is risk free but I want to reduce my
dependancy on glasses so im looking to get orthoK


"Inappropriate lens care procedures, patient noncompliance with
practitioner
instructions, and persisting in lens wear despite discomfort emerged as

potential risk factors."

Then I had better print the instructions and follow them to a T and
listen closely to my optometrist and Ill be fine.

 

At a conference I was at recently, this subject came up, and the feeling
was that the cases of MK tended to be more severe, and affect younger
patients (although again the younger patient probably reflects the
demographics). One risk factor with OK not present with other lens
modalities is the fact the lens is handled and placed in the eye just before
sleep, and hence flushing of the tear film behind the lens is minimal.

One suggestion that came up was OK lenses should be placed into the eye
maybe about an hour before sleep, which will allow any nasties transferred
to the lens from the finger opportunity to be washed away by the normal tear
flow.

 

I find your comments interesting, TG. I look at overnight OK from the
following perspective.

The incidence of microbial keratitis from sleeping in a soft
(conventional hydrogel) lens is about 1/500 per year, confirmed by
numerous studies. But, loss of vision occurs in only about 13% of
those cases. This is because the location of the ulcer is random, and
probability dictates that it will more likely occur off the visual
axis. The cause of ulcerative keratitis is adherence of bacteria to a
compromised, roughened epithelial surface. The cause of the
compromised epithelium in this case is hypoxia.

With OK, the epithelium is thinner centrally as it is literally pushed
away by the pressure of the lens. The cause of the compromised
epithelium is mechanical. Therefore, the forces likely to cause
epithelial compromise are concentrated on the visual axis, with a
greater likelihood that an infection will occur there, or in very close
proximity. Therefore, if an ulcer does occur, it will certainly do
more damage.

Naturally, the presence of acanthamoeba suggests improper lens hygeine
and the use of tap water to rinse the lenses prior to insertion.

DrG