Eye Allergies and Contact Lens Wear

Seasonal allergies affect about 20 percent of Americans. A significant portion of these people experience eye allergies, which can cause visual impairment and discomfort. Proper care, however, can limit or prevent the effects of eye allergies.

There are approximately 40 million contact lens wearers in the United States; the American Optometric Association estimates that about 75 percent of them report eye pain and irritation caused by allergies.

An eye allergy is a reaction to allergens or non-parasitic antigens. Pollen, mold, or dust mites are common allergens that can get into the eye and create an inflammation in the conjunctiva. The conjunctiva is a tissue that lines the inner eyelid and the cornea. It also helps to keep the eye moist. Eye allergies can be hereditary, but are not contagious.

Allergens are attracted to contact lenses. The lens can function like a sponge and attract deposits and allergens, making it crucial for wearers to thoroughly clean and disinfect their lenses and follow the guidelines given to them by their eye care practitioner.

Symptoms of eye allergies include red, itchy, burning, tearing, swollen eyes, and the feeling that something is in the eyes. Some eye allergy sufferers experience blurry vision or feel distracted and tired.

There are three common allergic conditions – giant papillary conjunctivitis, vernal keratoconjunctivitis and atopic keratoconjunctivitis. Giant papillary conjunctivitis (GPC) is the most common allergic condition in contact lens wearers. Generally, the condition causes the eye to feel itchy and irritated. GPC is caused either by an allergic reaction to the preservatives used in contact lens solutions or by lens deposits accumulated on the lens.

If the contact lens wearer continues with wear even when experiencing GPC, symptoms such as itchiness, redness and irritation frequently occur. These symptoms can sometimes continue after the lenses have been removed. Those who continue with contact lens wear in the presence of GPC also report that their lenses ride up on the eye when blinking, which can cause the onset of papillae or red bumps to form, especially on the under side of the upper eyelid.

Treating GPC most commonly involves suspending contact lens wear while the condition improves.

Tips

- Don’t rub your eyes; this will make it worse. Try placing a cool cloth on your eyes to ease the itching.

- Frequently wash hands with soap and water.

- Wash bedding in hot water to reduce allergens.

- Avoid wearing eye makeup.

- Never share contact lenses or eye makeup with anyone.

- Limit the length of time lenses are worn.

- Try wearing lenses part time and glasses part time.

- Discuss with your eye care professional a cleansing and replacement schedule that will best suit your needs.

- Use eye drops as recommended by your eye care professional.

- Use a rinsing and storage solution that does not contain known allergenic ingredients such as thimerosal.

Daily disposable lenses avoid the buildup of allergens on the lens surface and also eliminate exposure to disinfecting solutions and lens cleaning products that may also lead to allergic reactions.

Allergies to preservatives in contact lens solutions

The body’s response to allergens causes nearby cells to release chemicals that result in inflammation. Some substances found in contact lens solutions can lead to this response, causing redness, itching, and discomfort.

Preservatives in contact lens solutions can remain on the contact lens surface and/or within the lens matrix even after the lens has been cleaned and disinfected. These preservatives may cause an allergic reaction. The chemical Thimerosal is most commonly associated with eye allergies, though other chemicals can also cause an allergic response. Reactions can develop at any time, even after several months or years using a solution.

To avoid an allergic reaction to contact lens solutions, it is wise to use products labeled “sensitive eyes” or “thimerosal free.” Check the product label to ensure that the solution does not contain chemicals you may be allergic to.

Most wearers with allergies to lens solutions can continue to wear contacts without issue, but for some, it might be best to try daily wear lenses. Discuss your options with your eye care [http://www.contactlensking.com/eyehealth.aspx] practitioner.

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http://contact-lenses-without-prescription.com/eye-allergies-and-contact-lens-wear/

Using Special Effects Contact Lens

The use of contact lenses by society is common place. Aside from replacing the use of every day eye glasses, they are also now used as accessories to spice things up and as special effects. Thus, special effect contact lenses are also making a mark in the eye wear market. Many people are finding that they can change their looks and persona just by using these contacts.

Ordinary glasses and sun glasses only offer the ability to accessorize ones looks through changes in shapes and lens colors. They do cover the eyes but do not really change the persons looks. This is where this theatrical contact lens does the job. It transforms the beauty of the eyes into something more magical and something really extraordinary. A Special effects contact lens is just like any ordinary contact lens, but it comes with various exciting styles and designs.

A special contact lens comes with different colors. These colors are usually applied to the lens with the use of digitized computer process or hand-painting. Hand-painted contact lenses are much more expensive than commercialized and digital-printed ones. Aside from being tedious, hand-painted lenses are also more detail-oriented than commercialized ones.

These theatrical contact lens is often used as part of a costume for Halloween and special events. The usual type of special effect contact lens gives life to the eyes by covering the iris with an extraordinary work of art. They can still be corrective if you chose to apply your subscription to them. If purchased without prescription grades, they can be used as mere accessories. The array of its designs ranges from animal eyes, monster eyes, and anything else which is not normally seen on human. Some special types have the shapes of star, moon, and smiley. The limitation comes from ones imagination.

Aside from these designs, special effects contact lens can also do the task by providing glow in the dark ability. When the lights are turned off, the wearer’s eyes would be visible in pitch black darkness. Usually, this lens utilizes luminescent colors of white, yellow, and red. Shapes can also be customized to work with glow in the dark lens.

Still other contacts appear to cover the entire eye. You can even have totally black or white eye appearance. These lens work similarly to a one way mirror were the wearer can see through the lens but the outside observer cannot. The iris and pupil are fully covered and cannot be observed. These contacts are completely safe to use and are non-irritating to the eye.

Prior to purchasing any kind of contact lens you should seek the advice of a competent optometrist. One should never risk the well being of their eyes just for a theatrical or special effects display. Never buy you contacts from a foreign country where the health standards are less than those found in the US and Western Europe. Depending where you live it may even be illegal to purchase non prescription contact lenses. You can use you prescription to purchase discounted contact lenses safely on line from reputable manufactures.

credits to:

http://contact-lenses-without-prescription.com/using-special-effects-contact-lens/

Contact Lenses for Dry Eyes

When a contact lens wearer is having problems, the complaint often is: "My contacts make my eyes feel dry." Fortunately, there are several remedies.

Dryness is common in contact lens wearers and non-wearers alike. (If you don't wear contacts, you can read about dryness-relieving strategies in our article on dry eye syndrome.)

Thankfully, if you suffer from dry eye symptoms when wearing contacts, today there are many lens care products and new types of lenses available, and the right combination of these products often can improve the comfort of wearing contacts.

While "contact lenses for dry eyes" is not really a particular type of lens, certain lenses may relieve your dryness. Supplementing your contact lens wear with lubricating eye drops approved for use with contacts also can help. The contact lens cleaning and disinfecting products you use also should be evaluated, as different products may work better to keep your contacts moist and comfortable.

Fixing the problem starts with a visit to your eye care practitioner (ECP) so he or she can evaluate the cause of your contact lens-related dry eye symptoms and determine the best solution to increase your wearing comfort. Sometimes contact lens wearers avoid talking to their eye doctor about discomfort for fear that they'll be told they can't wear contacts any longer. But with today's variety of contact lens products, the need to discontinue contact lens wear altogether is very unlikely.

Water Content of Contact Lenses

Soft contact lenses are made of a combination of hydrophilic ("water-loving") polymers that hold water to keep the lenses moist and comfortable. The percentage of water content in soft contacts can vary widely — from about 38 to 79 percent.

Intuitively, you might think that if your eyes are dry you need a higher-water-content lens, but in fact the opposite may be true. The best contact lenses for dry eyes can be lower-water-content lenses. A high-water-content lens may lose much of its moisture more easily due to environmental influences.

Also, if your eyes are inherently dry and you wear high-water lenses, the lenses may be drawing tears away from your eyes to stay properly hydrated, thereby increasing your eye dryness. If this is the case, your eye doctor may switch you to a contact lens with a lower water content.

Silicone Hydrogel Contact Lenses for Dry Eyes

Silicone hydrogel contact lenses are a relatively new class of contact lens materials with high oxygen permeability — a characteristic that's good for your cornea, which needs high levels of oxygen to maintain eye health and good vision.

Silicone hydrogels generally are lower in water content than traditional soft lenses, so they can be good contact lenses for dry eyes. If you are experiencing dryness with standard soft contact lenses, especially toward the end of the day, your eye doctor may recommend switching to silicone hydrogel lenses.

Lens Brands That Solve Dryness Problems

Some brands have been found to be particularly useful contact lenses for dry eyes. Proclear lenses (CooperVision, Inc.), for example, are the only contact lenses on the market to carry the FDA-approved labeling statement, "May provide improved comfort for contact lens wearers who experience mild discomfort or symptoms relating to dryness during lens wear."

Extreme H2O (Hydrogel Vision Corp.) is another brand of soft lenses than many ECPs report to be useful in solving dryness-related comfort issues.

Orthokeratology and CRT

Here's a slightly different approach to contact lenses for dry eyes: Don't wear contacts while you're awake.

Dry eye is a common cause of contact lens discomfort. Special contacts for dry eyes can help. Or you could try ortho-k, which involves wearing contacts at night; they reshape your eyes gradually so you can see during the day without any contacts at all.

Orthokeratology (or ortho-k) and corneal refractive therapy (CRT) involve wearing special gas permeable contact lenses that re-shape your cornea to correct nearsightedness and allow you to see clearly during the day without glasses or contact lenses.

The lenses are worn only at night and must be worn just about every night in order to retain your cornea's new shape.

By negating your need to wear contact lenses during the day, ortho-k or CRT may eliminate contact lens-related dry eyes. This is because most people who wear contacts choose soft lenses, which must stay well-moistened to remain comfortable.

If your tear glands don't produce adequate tears to keep them hydrated, soft contacts can dry out and start absorbing moisture from the surface of your eyes, worsening dry eye discomfort. This can be especially troublesome during computer work, which causes people to blink less frequently, and this causes soft contacts to dry out more easily.

Ortho-k and CRT lenses, on the other hand, are gas permeable contacts that require less moisture to stay comfortable. Also, since your eyes are closed during sleep, there is less risk of the lenses and your eyes drying out from tear evaporation.

Cleaning and Disinfecting Products

Not all contact lens cleaning, disinfecting and storage products — collectively called "contact lens solutions" — work well with all contact lenses. In particular, some newer silicone hydrogel contacts have been found less comfortable when used with certain commonly available solutions.

Your ECP probably gave you a sample of a compatible lens care product during your contact lens exam and fitting. But if you switched brands later on, you may have started trouble. And if you switched a store brand of contact lens solution, you may believe you bought a generic form of the product you were already using, but in reality you could be using a completely different product. [Read more about store brands.]

Talk to your ECP about which solutions you're using, and bring the bottles to your visit.

Preservative Intolerance

Another issue with contact lens solutions, even if you're using the correct products, involves multipurpose solutions. While these single-solution products are very convenient, compared with the "old days" when lens cleaners, disinfectants and storage solutions were in separate bottles, multipurpose solutions contain preservatives that occasionally can cause problems.

Some contact lens wearers can develop intolerance to the preservatives in multipurpose solutions, which can manifest itself as dryness. If your eye doctor suspects you are sensitive to preservatives in multipurpose solutions, he or she may recommend switching to a preservative-free, hydrogen peroxide-based lens care system.

Another option is to wear daily disposable contacts that require no care products at all.

Eye Drops

Sometimes contact lens-related dry eyes can be solved with occasional use eye drops known as comfort drops, rewetting drops or artificial tears.

Though these lubricating eye drops typically provide only short-term relief of contact lens dryness symptoms, new drops have been introduced recently and these new products may provide more convenient, longer-lasting relief of dry eye symptoms.

If eye drops are your preferred approach, it's very important to make a product choice in consultation with your eye doctor. Many over-the-counter eye drops are not intended for use with contact lenses, and not all lens-compatible drops are compatible with all lens materials.

Your eye doctor can also tell you about other remedies for contact lens-related dry eyes, including eye vitamins and prescription eye drops for dry eye relief.

credits to:

http://www.allaboutvision.com/contacts/lenses-dry-eyes.htm

Top 10 Scariest Contact Lenses: Fashion For Your Eyes

The world of eyewear has been forever changed by the introduction of contact lenses, however, not all of them are practical or fashionable; some contact lenses are just downright disgusting, creepy, and especially scary. The top 10 contact lenses mentioned here are in no particular order, because I just can't seem to decide which ones creep me out more!

10. Black Out Contact Lenses

These scary contact lenses are perfect to give you that Edward Cullen vampire eye. While these creepy contact lenses are most commonly worn as part of scary Halloween costumes, men all around the world are probably scrambling for these black out contact lenses to attract their very own Bella, just like in Twilight. Hey, it worked for Edward.

Get these scary contact lenses here.

9. Alien Contact Lenses

Who needs to speculate about UFO sightings when you can get the "out of this world" look on a daily basis?  Stop wishing about getting beamed up by visiting aliens, and become one yourself with these creepy, cool contact lenses. With these fashionable, special effect lenses, your natural color won't show through, so it's an alien look all your own.

Non-prescription special effect alien contact lenses are available from Lens.com under the name Green Reptile Lenses. 

8. Stitches Contact Lenses

It may seem like a patient of laser eye surgery's greatest fear; having to have their eyeballs stitched back together following medical malpractice. However, the stitches contact lenses sure are scary. Perfect for Halloween or scaring the crap out of your friends, the stitches contact lenses display some of your natural eye color surrounded by a grey iris with black stitches. At $105 per pair here, the scary stitches contact lenses are pricey, but who cares about money when you're undead?

7. Computer Chip Contact Lenses

The name of this style of contact lens may not sound scary, but the effect is surprisingly terrifying. The creepy contact lenses camouflage any eye color with a washout white color and  surrounds the pupil with a black computer chip design. The computer chip contact lenses are the perfect fashion accessory for the computer geek who want to take their passion to the extreme, by literally seeing microchips everywhere they go!

The computer chip contact lenses are available from Fashion-Contact Lenses

6. The Hourglass Contact Lens

Females and fashion lovers are always striving to attain that ideal hourglass shape; but for those who can't transform their bodies to achieve the houseglass shape, can make sure they maintain that hourglass vision. Hourglass contacts don't sound scary, but the affect of the eyewear is definitely disturbing. The hourglass contact lenses available from Contact Lenses Price totally overwhelm the natural color of your eye with a hazel background with a contrasting black hourglass form that rests over the pupil.

5. Dollar Sign Contact Lenses

Some people just can't stop seeing dollar signs everywhere they go. Now, visions of money can be taken literally with the dollar sign contact lenses. These frightening contact lenses, I must admit, look more silly than scary, at least when not inserted in the eye, and are somehow reminiscent of Japanese game show cartoons.

Available from Fashion-Contact Lenses ,  the dollar green crazy lenses are extreme contacts which are good for 30 days of wear, and retail for only 24 GBP.

4. Icarus Contact Lenses

These scary contact lenses are on fire, literally! For the arsonist in your life who just can't seem to get fire out of his sight, the Icarus contact lenses have a very disturbing effect. Named after a character in Greek Mythology, Icarus who despite warnings, flew too close to the sun and fell into the sea; the scary contact lenses are a good reminder of why you should never stare directly into the sun.

Icarus contact lenses are available here.

3. Dragon Eye Contact Lenses

The dragon eye contact lenses are colorful and terrifying. These contact lenses are hand painted to cover the entire eyeball with neon green dragon scales, an orange and black speckled dragon egg design that covers the natural color of your eye, and a black cat's eye style pupil.

Naturally, since the scary dragon eye contacts are custom designed and hand painted, they aren't for contact wearers on a budget at $209 at Lens.com .

2. Knockout Contact Lenses

Like to look like you just stepped out of a cartoon after a serious boxing match? Then the knock out contact lenses are for you. The design of these scary contact lenses is simple; the white color of the lens overtakes your natural eye color, while a big "X" crosses over your pupil and across your eyeball.

The knockout contact lenses are available from LensesbyMail.com  for $55 USD.

1. Cyclops Contact Lenses

Quite possibly the scariest contact lenses of all, the Cyclops contact lenses turn the full surface of the eye completely red, from pupil to iris. These scary contact lenses are most commonly used for movie production; however, the Cyclops contact lenses have also been making a rather strange fashion appearance on the club scene.

The disturbing and rather disgusting Cyclops contact lenses are hand made and hand painted. Available from Fashion-Contact Lenses,  this scary fashion accessory retails for 279 GBP. In the US, you can find a similar Ouch Scary Lenses here for $135.

Love these scary contact lenses? You don't need a prescription to order these weird and wacky fashion accessories. However, before purchasing the eyewear do consult an eye doctor to ensure it is safe for your eyes to wear the scary lenses and learn about proper eyecare for contact lense wearers.

credits to:http://inventorspot.com/articles/top_10_scariest_contact_lenses_fashion_your_eyes_24914

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fachion contact lens

What Are Glimmer Contact Lenses?

 

glimmer contact lenses are a great option. Glimmer contact lenses are coloured contact lenses with a shimmery finish. They shimmer in the light, giving a slight metallic effect that looks beautiful. While some coloured contacts use a flat colour that obscures your natural eye colour, glimmer contact lenses are different. They have a clever design that allows a little of your natural colour to show through. This means that their colour blends with and enhances tour natural eye colour, in a way that looks more natural than most coloured contacts, with a touch of magical shine.

Favourite Glimmer Contact Lenses

Due to their clever blended design, glimmer contact lenses look great on most eye colours. They are able to work with different eye colours, so the same lens will look great on people with brown, green or blue eyes. Here at You Know It we have a great choice of glimmer contact lenses, with colours to help you create any style. These include normal eye colours like blue and green, as well as fantasy lenses in gold, silver and violet. Personally I think these fantasy colours look the best. They give your eye colour a beautiful new tint and will really draw attention to your eyes            

 

  

Silver Glimmer Contact Lenses

Green Glimmer Contact Lenses

Gold Glimmer Contact Lenses

Credits to:

http://www.youknowit.com/contact-lens-blog/index.php/what-are-glimmer-contact-lenses