One Day Acuvue Contacts

New Contact Lenses Reduce Infections

A new generation of lenses can improve comfort levels and reduce the possibility of bacterial infection for America's 30 million contact wearers. Your eyes need air, and old-fashion contact lenses leave your cornea surface them gasping.

The new lenses called the silicone hydrogel lens and the hyper-oxygen transmissible lens were recently approved by the Food and Drug Administration for 30-day continuous wear. In recent studies by the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, they compared patients wearing the hyperoxygen transmissible Bausch and & Lomb soft lens or Menicon rigid lens with those using conventional lenses. They discovered that the new soft lenses significantly reduced bacterial binding with no consequesnti9al difference between the six-night or the 30-night brands. An unexpected finding was that rigid contact lenses appear better for the eye than soft because they promote tear exchange, which washes out debris and allows more oxygen to reach the eye.

"For the first time, we have a scientific-based rationale [which] strongly suggests that these new lenses will be the breakthrough in reducing the risk for infection that everyone has been waiting for," says senior author Dwight Cavanagh, M.D., vice chairman of ophthalmology at UT Southwestern.

Conventional lenses disturb the surface of the cornea. This has the potential for pathogenic bacteria to bind to the surface cells causing infection. Eye doctors have long warned the public against wearing contact lenses overnight, because subsequent eye infections could result in complications such as corneal ulcers, which can lead to permanent vision loss.

"Until now, no apparent clinical progress had been made in ameliorating this critical problem since disposable contacts were first introduced nearly 10 years ago," says Cavanagh.