Dr. Hayden: You're finding your contact lenses are painful
or uncomfortable? Want to know why? I'm going to give you the top four reasons. Stick around.
All right, guys. Before we get into it, I'm Dr. Joel Hayden, welcome to The Eyecare and
Wellness Channel. If you haven't been here before, I'm an optometrist and nutritionist.
If you like what I have to say, please hit that like button, please consider subscribing.
Let's get at it. Before I delve into the four reasons, I want
you to know at the end I'm going to tell you the number one contact lens types that cause
all of these issues so that if you are wearing one of these types of lenses, you may want
to consider changing. All right, guys. No specific order. Reason
number one, the reason that your lenses may be bothering you comfort-wise is that it may
not be fitting that well. If it's a new contact lens to you and you're wondering, "Is it the
lens or is it me?" Well, if it's really uncomfortable something's off, so it's definitely worth
returning to your doctor. Don't put up with it for long. A, there's usually a time limit
on doctor's fitting fee and you want to get right back in there and let them know.
If it's more of an awareness that the contact's there, that can get better, especially in
the first week. So, don't freak out over that. They're going to settle in, you're going to
like them. But if it's painful or really uncomfortable, something's office. Get that checked.
Reason number two, which may be the largest reason of them all, is your eyes are dry.
Even new contact lens wearers may get dry eyes. Women over 50 always ... almost always
get dry eyes. So sorry, but it's a hormonal thing and your eyes definitely get dry as
you get into your 50s. I want you to ... If you think that's the case or may have been
wearing the same contact lenses for years and all of a sudden they're bothering you,
well, it probably is dryness. So, check with your doctor. Watch this video that I'm going
to put up here on dry eyes and taking omega-3 fish oil pills, which will definitely help.
And if it is dryness, your eye doctor may have a better lens for you to go into to make
it more comfortable. Number three, you may have a contact lens
solution issue. And if you've been using the same solution all along, it's a brand name
solution, whether it be OPTI-FREE, Biotrue, Renu, Clear Care; that's probably not it.
But if you've been using any of the generics - CVS, Walgreens, Walmart, Target - about
every four or five years they would usually contract out to a new manufacturer but the
bottle looks the same. So you're reaching for it thinking it's the exact same bottle
and what's in it is different and your eye may not be liking that. You may have a sensitivity
to the preservative that's in that solution. Watch this video on generic contact lens solutions
and consider going to one of the regular brand name solutions.
The fourth reason, which is environmental allergies. Environmental allergies are very,
very common and they tend to be in the Spring and the Fall, at least in the northeast. And
they can really give you some discomfort; some itching, redness, scratchiness. If all
of a sudden you're going along and everything seems fine, it really bothers you, one, you
can try over the counter allergy drops. Something like a Pataday or a Zaditor. Pataday is once-a-day.
You put the drop in, wait 10 minutes, put your contacts in, go all day. If it's Zaditor,
it's twice a day so you put the drop in, wait 10 minutes, put your contacts in, go all day
and then after you take the contacts out at night, put the drop in again and that may
help. Hopefully it'll help you through the season. If it doesn't, call your eye doctor.
Again, there may be a better lens for you to wear to decrease your ocular effects of
the environmental allergies. I promised you at the end that I would be
telling you what type of contact lenses give you these lenses most commonly. And outside
of the ill-fitting lens of the first one, the next three, all are much more of an issue
in monthly contact lenses and even two week lenses, especially when people are stretching
them to three weeks and four weeks. You just cannot get enough stuff off of those lenses.
Environmentally, there's stuff out in the air that will get on those lenses. And as
much as you think you can clean them off, well, you can't and they're going to keep
bothering you. The solution to the monthly lens issues, go
to dailies. Dailies solve the problem. I've said this a number of times. 10-15 years ago,
I was seeing a dozen people a week in for contact lens issues that are now gone. They're
happily gone. They're still my patients but they're not coming in with these contact lens
issues all because I moved them into daily contact lenses and solved the problem.
I hope that helped. I hope it helps drive you to wearing contact lenses that are much
more comfortable. Again, if you like this, hit that like button to consider subscribing.
Until next time, take care.