| Your
eyes need oxygen to stay healthy. Old-fashioned eye contacts can leave your
corneal surfaces gasping for air. But a new generation of eye contacts improve
your comfort level and reduce the possibility of bacterial infection for
America's 30 million contact wearers.
The new versions,
called the silicone hydrogel lens and the hyper-oxygen transmissible lens
(they're easier to wear than to say), were recently approved by the Food
and Drug Administration for 30-day continuous wear.
New
Eye Contacts Reduce Potential Infections
Through research done
at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, the
scientists compared patients wearing the hyperoxygen transmissible Bausch
& Lomb soft lens or Menicon rigid lens with those using conventional
lenses.
They found that the
new soft eye contacts produced significantly less bacterial binding with
no consequential difference between six-night and 30-night wear. They
also concluded that hard lenses might be healthier than soft lenses, because
the former 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 eye contacts 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, according to Cavanagh, allowing pathogenic
bacteria to bind to surface cells and potentially initiate infection.
Eye doctors have long warned the public against wearing eye 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. Now the new generation of eye contacts allow
for better hygiene and comfort level.
As always it is important
to practise good hygiene with the use of your eye contacts. This means
regular cleaning and replacement as recommended by the manufacturer.
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