This time of year there are usually a lot contact lens problems popping up -- patients coming in with red eyes, infections, or just trouble wearing their lenses all day.  One of the best ways to keep your contact lenses problem-free and keep you out of your doctor's chair (and potentially out of contact lenses for a few weeks as your eye heals!) is to rethink your cleaning regimen.  Prone to infections? Overwearing your lenses, sleeping in your lenses, or not cleaning them properly are the three biggest reasons most people get contact-lens related infections.  Contact lenses drying out or causing irritation?  Again, overwearing your lenses, sleeping in your lenses, or not cleaning them properly are the three biggest reasons most people have trouble with contact lenses during some parts of the year and not others. The first two are no-brainers: throw your lenses away on time and take them out every single night.  But wouldn't it be great if there was one solution that both killed bacteria and removed surface debris to leave a fresh, clean lens for the next morning? Luckily someone has already invented the answer and it's hydrogen peroxide based contact lens solutions, but only about 11% of contact lens wearers are using this technology.  With new improvements in this technology coming out this year, there's more reasons than ever to make the switch to the product that can change how you view your contact lenses.

CLEAR CARE Gets An Upgrade

Out this fall is the latest version of CLEAR CARE, the hydrogen peroxide solution that really set the standard for safety and performance for the last few decades of lens wearers.  The solution still requires 6 hours (overnight) to neutralize, and there is no change to it's anti-microbial properties.  But the solution now includes an extra hydration polymer called "Hyrdaglyde" that helps prevent drying out of the contact lens as it goes through it's life span (be that 2 week or monthly).  This polymer is also in the new OPTI-FREE PureMoist solution.

Click over to get your $5 Coupon off a bottle of CLEAR CARE Plus

Sometimes my patients will ask me if using CLEAR CARE is too harsh for their eyes.  On the contrary, hydrogen peroxide solutions are the only preservative free lens cleaners on the market so compared to multi-purpose solutions these are way less harsh and great for sensitive patients or those with hypoallergenic needs.  One thing traditional hydrogen peroxide solutions could do though was potentially dry the lens.  Yes this solution removes debris, but that extra cleaning may wear on the moisture layers on the front and back surface of your contact lens too.  That's the concept behind the new addition of moisture "boosters" like Hydraglyde in CLEAR CARE.  Now the solution is deep cleaning, and adding back moisture to the lens at the same time.

New Smart Contact Lens Case Tells You When Your Lenses Are Clean

One of the potential knocks against hydrogen peroxide contact lens solutions is how do you know when your lenses are ready to wear again?  If you don't neutralize the peroxide long enough (for CLEAR CARE, that's 6 hours and for PeroxiClear it's 4 hours), then your lenses will sting your eyes really terribly when you try to put them back in.  The FDA has recently approved NovaBay's Intelli-Case, a contact lens case to be used with peroxide solutions that tells you where you are in the cleaning process.  When your lenses are ready, the light turns green on the top of the case, telling you it's safe to insert them in your eyes.

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The company plans to have the case widely available for purchase in 2016.  Currently, the packaging of Intelli-Case will be included in a bundle with 2 bottles of NovaBay's own hydrogen peroxide solution, NovaClear, with recommendations that each case would last for 60 days (through 2 bottles worth of solution) before needing to be changed.

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If you wear multiple-wear contact lenses (be they soft contact lenses with a monthly or 2 week disposal, hybrid lenses, or even RGPs), you have probably experienced the significant decrease in lens comfort common as a contact lens reaches the end of its life span.  The lens may feel grimy, filmy, and deposited.  It may feel dry and brittle along the edges.  It may move around more on your eyes, or stick more to your eyes at the end of the day.  Luckily, there is still hope for monthly, 2 week, and extended wear contact lenses to have better comfort -- you just need to look at your solution!

Cleaning your contact lenses is a lot more than just dropping them into a container with solution.  Over the course of your day, your contact lenses are exposed to airborne debris in your environment, lotions and makeup products like mascara that you use around the eye, eye drops that you are using for redness, dryness, or itching, and your own tear film.  That is a lot of exposure for a thin little piece of polymer draped over your eye every day.  To achieve maximum comfort and performance, you need to be able to remove all of this debris at the end of the day from your lenses and start fresh the next morning.  If you use a multi-purpose solution like Opti-Free or Renu, that is why rubbing your lenses is such an essential step.  But if you really want your lenses to feel brand new (or as close as possible without changing to daily disposable lenses), you need something even stronger in your solution regimen.

PeroxiClear package via

Hydrogen peroxide solutions have long been popular for contact lens wearers because they offer the best debris-removing option on the market, and they are 100% preservative free for people with more sensitive eyes.  Clear Care has been a mainstay for my office -- I am constantly running our of samples because I recommend it so often.  But Clear Care has some new competition in the launch of Bausch and Lomb's PeroxiClear which is now widely available this month on your local store shelves.  What are the differences between Clear Care and the newer PeroxiClear?  Here's a breakdown of PeroxiClear's main features and upgrades:

PeroxiClear is Faster
Neutralization time is only 4 hours whereas Clear Care has a 6 hour time window.  For most patients this shorter time may not be a huge advantage because their lenses are being cleaned overnight, but if you have a job where your schedule shifts from day shift to night shift, or an irregular sleeping schedule, a 4 hour process could have a major advantage.

PeroxiClear has an Extra Moisturizer
Bausch and Lomb included an extra wetting agent in their solution (Polymer 181) that binds moisture to the lens at a higher rate than older generation hydrogen peroxide solutions. Bausch and Lomb's own market study reports that their product strongly out performs Clear Care on the amount of surfactant (moisturizer) found on the lens surface at the end of the day, leading to better all-day lens comfort.

Color coded case = pure genius. Via

PeroxiClear's Lens Case is User Friendly
I love Clear Care, but long ago I found myself baffled by their right and left lens basket design.  Why make it so hard to see?  The little L in the corner that is beige on beige plastic?  That is a recipe for disaster in people that just took their contact lenses out!  A genius at Bausch and Lomb decided this was a problem that could be fixed, so they made the right side white so it is really easy to keep your lenses properly separated.  Especially in presbyopes or high hyperopes, this design can mean a lot.

Have you tried PeroxiClear yet?  Please leave me your thoughts and comments because I would love to hear if you find this product better than other hydrogen peroxide systems on the market!

It's that time of year once more: my sample drawer is stocked with allergy eye drops to relieve the most common spring time complaint that brings my patients into the office--itching from seasonal allergies.   Do you suffer from seasonal allergies?  Are you a contact lens wearer?   Well fighting your itching, redness, and swelling just got a lot harder.  Contact lenses trap all of your allergen triggers right onto your eye like a little magnet.  Then every time you blink, you spread that allergy soup on your  contact lens all over your eye.  Graphic enough description for you?  Here's how we can help:

1) Don't sleep in your contact lenses
Get that allergy sponge out of your eye and give your eyes the night off.  Allergy sufferers are some of the worst patients for overnight wear because your lens buildup is never getting removed.  Not to mention, if you are using an allergy eye drop (even over the counter drops), you need to instill them when your contact lenses are out.  For more information on the best drops please see:
Over the Counter
Prescription

So take your lenses off, put in your medicine, and get a good night's rest.

2) Rub your Lenses!
When I ask people what contact lens solution they use, they often tell me "the no rub kind."  Well, let me debunk that myth.  Multi-purpose contact lens solutions like Opti-Free, Renu, and the generics work best when you rub your lens gently with solution in the palm of your hand. If you have purchased "no rub" solution, turn the box around and read the fine print.  "No Rub" solutions require that you hold the lens under a stream of contact lens solution for 30 seconds.  30 seconds!! Are you doing this?  If you are using these solutions properly, you will go through an entire bottle within 2 weeks!!

No Rub--but you need to hold the lenses under a stream of solution for 30 seconds! Just read the back of the box for all the fine print about these statements!

3) Change to Clearcare or Hydrogen Peroxide Solutions
NOTHING cleans your lenses better than Clearcare.  I love this solution for allergies, dry eye, and just people who wear monthly lenses but feel like they are getting "dirty" by the last 2 weeks.  Hydrogen peroxide solutions require that you let the lenses sit overnight for a minimum of 6 hours, but in the morning, your lens is going to feel much cleaner and fresher than any multi-purpose solution can achieve.  And this is one solution that really is "no rub"!



3) Switch to Daily Disposable Contact Lenses

If you have severe seasonal allergies (or especially year round allergy issues), there is nothing that will improve your suffering more than changing to daily disposable contact lenses (well, other than wearing glasses instead of contact lenses).  Daily lenses are such a great option because your eye gets to start with a fresh new lens every single day.  All of the pollen, dust, cat hair -- whatever your allergen trigger is that collects on the surface of your contact lens all day long just gets thrown in the trash at the end of the day.  Ahh, immediate relief.