this may be one of the most common conditions that gets people taken out of wearing contact lenses
let's focus in
giant papillary conjunctivitis or GPC it's a mouthful in this video we're going over what
it is symptoms causes and three tips that you could do to hopefully prevent you from getting
GPC. GPC is the swelling of the inner eyelid and it mainly happens on the top eyelids and they'll
become inflamed and develop these round bumps called papillae now people can normally develop
papillary conjunctivitis maybe from allergies or bacterial infections or they'll develop small
versions of these papillae but when you have large round bumps large round papillae that
are one millimeter in diameter or larger this is giant papillary conjunctivitis now people
can get a primary GPC from chronic allergies but most commonly people can get a secondary GPC from
wearing contact lenses now in general GPC can come from any chronic rubbing or irritation of
a foreign body in the eye will chronically rub on the inner eyelid and this can be from Stitches or
sutures from an eye surgery prosthetic eyes that people wear and most commonly from contact lenses
and it could be from developing an allergy to the contact lens itself but most commonly can be from
The Chronic irritation of the deposits that get on the contact lens we'll get protein deposits
that cake onto the surface of the lens creating a biofilm and when the eyelids constantly rub
over that protein that biofilm it will cause that allergic reaction will cause the giant papillae
to show up it can also show up from the cleaning solutions that you're using on the contact lenses
or the contact lens itself if it's poorly fit and rubbing and poking weird then sometimes that can
cause GPC as well now the symptoms of GPC are usually redness irritation pain your eyes will
feel itchy a lot you'll want to rub them like this a lot it can also cause a mucous buildup and cause
blurry vision and you may also notice that your contact lenses start moving weird so when you
blink if you have those bumps sometimes those bumps won't actually grab a hold of the contact
and pick it up and then drop it down so it feels like your contact is moving and shuffling more
than it used to one thing that people might notice is sometimes when they take their contact lens out
they might feel the symptoms a little bit more they might feel the irritation more because the
contact lens isn't there to Shield the eye from the eyelid so when the contact's gone sometimes
the eyeball will actually feel those bumps a little bit more moving around might feel like
something's poking or scratching the eye it might feel like there's a hair in there but yeah can be
kind of weird when you take the contact lens out so what type of treatment is there for GPC now
if your contact lens wear and you go into your eye doctor a lot of times your eye doctor will
actually check underneath your eyelid they'll actually flip the eyelid up kind of weird but
we'll use a Q-tip and actually flip the eyelet up so we can see underneath the eyelid and check for
those bumps it doesn't hurt it just feels weird kind of uncomfortable now usually when we see GPC
there are a few treatments that we can do number one depending on the severity we usually take
you out of the contact lenses to give the eyelid a break from that chronic irritation you can also be
prescribed anti-allergy or anti-inflammatory eye drops to get rid of those bumps now what stinks is
it could take two to four weeks sometimes months to get rid of GPC now when it's resolved your eye
doctor May recommend switching to daily contact lenses to reduce the chance of that chronic
irritation or the build up of the biofilm on the contacts because you'll start with a new contact
lens every day and dailies are usually thinner so you won't have as much of irritation on the
eyelid now sometimes GPC can be stubborn to get rid of and there are patients that end up not
being able to wear contact lenses they end up having to switch over to glasses full time or
maybe they start looking into Lasik now chances are if you're watching this video your eye doctor
probably mentions something about GPC to you or you've had it in the past if so definitely
leave a comment below I'm kind of curious to hear your experience what helped you get rid
of GPC what you did to treat yours and get rid of yours or if you just had to get taken out
of contact lenses altogether now let me give you three tips that may help prevent you from getting
GPC in the future number one since it's mainly going to be related to your contact lenses and
that's to reduce your contact lens wear time now most of the time GP happens with people that tend
to over wear their contact lenses if they're in a two-week or a monthly contact lens they tend to
wear them longer than they should and so if you can reduce that time to when you're supposed to
take them out and replace them with a fresh pair this will be best for your eyes now if you're one
that tends to sleep in or nap in your contact lenses you're going to want to cut that out
people that have had GPC or mild GPC they usually never sleep in their contact lenses even if the
contact lenses are approved for sleeping in them you just want to cut that out reduce the wear time
or the contact to that eyelid also for someone that wears their contacts many hours during the
day if you're wearing them for 20 hours you only sleep four hours a night you will want to try to
reduce the wear time get those hours down the more you're out of the contact lenses the less
likely you'll develop GPC tip number two and that's to clean your contact lenses with a type
of hydrogen peroxide preservative free contact lens solution like Clear Care this can hopefully
remove any biofilm or protein deposits that are on the surface of the contact lens so lessening
the chance of getting GPC lessening the exposure to that inner eyelid number three and that's to
use an anti-allergy eye drop if you're somebody that already has eye allergies even if they're
really mild you may want to look into getting an allergy eye drop like pad a day or alloy
even if you're just using it once a day maybe in the morning 10 minutes before you put your
contact lenses in this may help or lessen the chances of developing these large papillae the
giant papillary conjunctivitis now if you want to learn more in depth about contact lenses cleaning
your contact lenses correctly definitely check out my playlist right here or one of my other
videos right here to learn more about the eyes I'm Dr. Neal Guymon, Dr. EyeGuy, stay focused