Contact Lenses

[moldy]

haven't worn them for about 15 years now. times have changed. they have complete solutions that makes it easier to store and maintain them. disposables are cheap.

its a joy not to wear glasses for the first day today after a long time. both eyes are 6.0 for the power. the only difference is that when i wear glasses, i am short and long sighted. wearing contacts today, i find that i cant read anything near, well i can read but its very very blur the nearer i bring it to the eyes. even typing on this computer, it seems blur. am i missing something here? do i need to get specially ordered contact lenses? or do i just go ahead and throw these contact lenses away. please help. doesn't look like a good idea if i continue to wear them while everything is slightly blur when reading.

need some opinions.

TB.

I hit upon a novel solution: I put my glasses down and didn't pick them up except now and then. My close sight came back to perfect and I can live with the blur as I sort of know what bus to catch and what a McDonalds looks like. To a certain extent short sightedness is just a definition anyway. I pick them up to watch the footie by the way.

[macular]

haven't worn ...

... while everything is slightly blur when reading.

need some opinions.

TB.

Tiger, I've gathered information from your posts that:

- you're 36 years old.

- you need power of 6.0 for both your eyes.

- you can't see well for near objects with contact lenses.

- your spectacle glasses work fine (for both your distance and near vision?)

I do not discount the possibility of having early presbyopia (aging-sight) at your age although not common, meaning you have proper correction for distance vision of 6/6 (or 20/20 or 1.0, which actually mean the same visual acuity grading) but unable to focus near. Most people start to find reading problem around 40 years old.

I don't quite understand when you said that: "...the only difference is that when i wear glasses, i am short and long sighted..." and also in another post saying: "... glasses work fine today." .

You also mentioned that: "...sounds like bifocal is the way to go" giving me a clue that you're not using bifocal or progressive spectacle lenses.

Did your single vision (non-bifocal/progressive) spectacle glasses work fine for both distance and near vision?

If you're able to see clearly for both distance and near with spectacle glasses but unable to see near clearly with your contact lenses, you should try to find out the following:

It's important to know if your prescription for both eyes are -6.00D (myopia/short-sighted) or +6.00D (hyperopia/far-sighted) for your spectacle glasses.

If your spectacle glasses are -6.00D, then your contact lenses prescription should be -5.50D , due to the vertex distance of the spectacle plane.

If your spectacle glasses are +6.00D, then your contact lenses prescription should be +6.50D.

Vertex Conversion Table:

http://pros.cibavision.co.uk/lenses/lens_g...tix_indiv.shtml

If your contact lenses are prescribed at -6.00D instead of the required -5.50D (too much -ve), we call it an over-corrected myopia/short-sighted.

If your contact lenses are prescribed at +6.00D instead of the required +6.50D (not enough +ve), we call it an under-corrected hyperopia/far-sighted.

In either case, it will cause reading problem as we need more +ve power to read near.

"...just wore lenses for 2 hours plus today and removed them so that my eyes can get used to the lack of oxygen getting in all of a sudden."

Your eyes can't "feel" the lack of oxygen. You can only feel the dehydration as contact lenses are hydrogel material having sponge-like structure which absorbs the water from your tear film and evaporate into the air, thus causing dryness.

However, your eyes will show the lack of oxygen when the blood vessel around the limbal region (between the white and colored region of your eye) are dilated/expanded, showing "red" eyes.

There's a mis-conception of thinking that the higher water content is the lenses, the less dry it will be. In fact, a 38% water content material will make the eyes feel less dry than a 55% water content material.

Eye dryness are also related to the

- amount of tears produced,

- amount of tears being drained off from the eyes

- and also the quality of the tear film of your eyes.

The lipid (oily) layer prevents the watery content from rapid evaporation, the watery layer constitute the major part of tear film and the mucous layer allow adhersion of the tear film to the cornea. All three layers are important for good quality tear to prevent eye dryness.

To wear contact lenses after a lapse of 15 years, you have to start wearing from a basic schedule of 4 hrs for the first day, then add 2 hrs maximum to the next day's wearing.

For example, if you could only achieve 2 hrs wearing for the first day, the next day you should target at maximum wearing of 4 (2+2) hrs. If you can only wear for 3 hrs for the second day, you should only try to wear for maximum of 5 (3+2) hrs for the third day. You need to build up your wearing time.

Recommended soft contact lenses wearing hours is between 8 to 10 hrs a day and change to spectacle glasses once you reach home to avoid complications due to over wearing of contact lenses.

NEVER sleep with your contact lenses on (being drunk is not a good excuse) and

ALWAYS clean and disinfect your lenses deligently (being lazy isn't good excuse either!).

Hope the info helps.

Cheers!

[macular]

...You could try monovision: one contact for reading, one for distance. Me, I tried it and didn't like it.

Monovision is a compromise, not a solution.

You need a balanced binocular vision for good depth perception.

As the reading addition/power gets higher, it will reach a "break point" where monovision is not going to be working well.

It is especially true for people with high myopia/short-sighted correction due to the difference in retinal image size.

I have multifocal contact lenses and I like them a lot. However, they really aren't that good of a solution for extensive reading. You just don't see close up quite well enough for that. I still often use my reading classes for long computer sessions too.

Not everybody can wear multifocal contact lenses as most people have displace corneal apex, which is a major cause of failure in multifocal contact lens fitting.

Single vision reading glasses is always the best if the near working distance is constant.

I have avoided lasik and still intend to do so. Too much risk, too many unknowns for the long term. Google for lasikdisaster and do read thoroughly the main site (seems URLs are bing removed from tis forum), which is something like: http lasik disaster dot com.

Lasik is a scarring effect and it is irreversible. Most of the time, vision may not be as crystal clear as pre-op. Patients with lower expectation in terms of visual acuity will be the best candidate.

Patient's satisfactory level will depend on a few factors like the desire to do away with inconvenience of spectacle glasses, the cosmetic issue (felt that looked better without glasses).

Some patients felt that lasik has enabled them to see better but in actual fact is that their spectacle or contact lenses are not properly corrected or due to the larger image magnification for post-lasik high myopes.

Remember: scarring effect means the collagen fibres of the stoma layer of cornea has been shaved and it will never be as smooth as its natural state.

Even if you got lasik, you'd probably have to repeat later as your eyes worsened, and you'd still have to wear reading glasses unliess you went for monovision lasik--in which case, why not just have monovision in contact lenses?

Lasik procedure cannot solve the presbyopia/aging-sight problem.

Again, monovision is a compromise, not a solution.

Some people are happy with it, but many are not able to accept monovision.

Besides lasik, there's the lens replacement solution developed via cataract treatment. Sounds pretty drastic though

We focus near by changing the curvatures of the crystalline lens in our eyes.

During cataract operation, natural crystalline lens are being replaced by artificial Intra-Ocular Lens (IOL).

Implanted lens cannot flex like our natural lens, therefore will not solve the presbyopia/aging-sight problem.

. . . woudn't try having it done in Thailand at least.

Cataract operation has become so common and advanced that it take only less than an hour to operate. It is classified as a day-surgery and the new technique of small incision cataract surgery allow the patient to recover much faster. It is a very safe procedure, although there might be some rare complications due to mainly other systemic problems.

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

Anybody have a price on Orthokeratology (CRT) baht ???

A bit of an update here re Boston solutions and finding RGP lenses here in BKK.

[ivan96822]

I didn't read many of the other posts, but contact lenses are a complete hassle. I wore them for over ten years, then decided to get Lasik eye surgery. Is the procedure a bitch? Yes. Do I now have 20-20 vision in both eyes for the rest of my life? Absolutely.

Contacts and glasses both suck.

[49337]

it takes time to get adjusted to them from glassess. my are 6 as well. get the disposable daily moist, the best. bernie