Lens Options

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kieran19685
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Lens Options

Postby kieran19685 » Wed 13 Aug 2014 6:10 pm

Getting quite tired of RGP lens and would like to know if there's any other lens options out there.

Having a consultation in a month for cross linking and wondering whether this could open the door up for kerasoft lens?

Getting good vision with the RGP's but eyes become tired and work and often red.

Hospital dismissed the redness as it only comes at work.

Tired everything, more water, eye drops, but still become redish

help pls

James_Ldn
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Re: Lens Options

Postby James_Ldn » Wed 13 Aug 2014 8:02 pm

Hi Kieran,

I'm guessing you've tried unsuccessfully with Kerasoft lenses already? If so, cross-linking can help but it depends if / how much improvement you get. If you're lucky the cross-linking could flatten the cornea enough that Kerasoft lenses may fit better, but you probably won't know that for sure until about 3 months after the cross-linking.

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Re: Lens Options

Postby kieran19685 » Wed 13 Aug 2014 8:42 pm

Hi

I have tried nothing but RGP lens. wanting to try alternative lens

James_Ldn
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Re: Lens Options

Postby James_Ldn » Wed 13 Aug 2014 9:46 pm

In that case, it's certainly worth a try. Hopefully, cross linking might make the fitting process a bit easier as well.

kieran19685
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Re: Lens Options

Postby kieran19685 » Wed 13 Aug 2014 10:44 pm

Thanks do you know how i could try different lens? I have a private consultation next month for cross linking however my hospital always trt to keep me on RGP's.

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CrippsCorner
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Re: Lens Options

Postby CrippsCorner » Wed 13 Aug 2014 11:09 pm

You must insist otherwise then! I really don't know why they are resistant, it's not like they're making money out of you. My hospital was reluctant to try hybrids, but had no problem with RGP's or soft contacts.

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Re: Lens Options

Postby GarethB » Thu 14 Aug 2014 3:39 pm

RGP lenses are the prefferd choice by the NHS for the following rasons;

Easy to make
Been around for a long toime
There are quite a few manufacturers of these lenses, so they are cheap for the NHS to buy
Fitting kits can be reused
Optometrists learning to treat KC are predominantly trained only in how to fit RGP lenses and taught this is the best for all.

Therefore in many cases / hospitals lens fitters lack the skills to fit a scleral lens of which in the UK there are only a handful of suppliers and a lot more skill is required to manufacture these.

The same goes fo soft lenses which is compounded by the fact many lens fitters are still of the opinion a soft lens won't work and even if they fitted a normal eye with a soft lens there are fitters who lack the skill to do so as it is so long since they fitted a soft lens. Soft lens fitting kits need to be changed after each patient, they are single use lenses for test fitting purposes (I think it is a hygiene issues as the same applies for normal soft lens fitting), the manufacture of soft lenses for KC is very labour intensive compared to an RGP so higher manufacturing costs.

I was assistng in one traning session where students were learning how to fit a soft lens to patients (I was one of the patient volunteers) and a student stubonly refused to accept soft lenses work to the point I was accused of having memorise the eye charts after I had challenged them to select a chart of their choice to see if I could read it. The person leading the session stepped in and said the charts being electronic could be customised so the trainee was asked to type in their own letters in to the chart and it was only after 5 - 10 minutes of this did they finally accept that it was the soft lenses helping me to see.

Unfortunatly he constraints of the NHS does mean that as much as optoms want to develop their skills and learn about new products, they are unable to do so unless they use their own time and money.

Pester power does work along with repeated trips to eye casualty because of the problems I had with RGP lenses finally convinced my hospital that it was worth trying soft lenses and now they have seen the results, rather than seeing me monthly for scheduled appointments interspersed with eye casualty visits, they now see me annually which has been the case now for the past six years or more. They admit that there is a long term saving with the soft lenses in my case.

As with any lesn or treatment, it isn't for everyone, but the only way you will know what works best for you is gradually working through the alternatives whch takes time and patience, hence why we are called patients.
Gareth

kieran19685
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Re: Lens Options

Postby kieran19685 » Thu 14 Aug 2014 8:15 pm

Thanks Gareth - how would you recommend i go about trying different lens?

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Re: Lens Options

Postby CrippsCorner » Thu 14 Aug 2014 11:07 pm

GarethB wrote:RGP lenses are the prefferd choice by the NHS for the following rasons;

Easy to make
Been around for a long toime
There are quite a few manufacturers of these lenses, so they are cheap for the NHS to buy
Fitting kits can be reused
Optometrists learning to treat KC are predominantly trained only in how to fit RGP lenses and taught this is the best for all.

Therefore in many cases / hospitals lens fitters lack the skills to fit a scleral lens of which in the UK there are only a handful of suppliers and a lot more skill is required to manufacture these.

The same goes fo soft lenses which is compounded by the fact many lens fitters are still of the opinion a soft lens won't work and even if they fitted a normal eye with a soft lens there are fitters who lack the skill to do so as it is so long since they fitted a soft lens. Soft lens fitting kits need to be changed after each patient, they are single use lenses for test fitting purposes (I think it is a hygiene issues as the same applies for normal soft lens fitting), the manufacture of soft lenses for KC is very labour intensive compared to an RGP so higher manufacturing costs.

I was assistng in one traning session where students were learning how to fit a soft lens to patients (I was one of the patient volunteers) and a student stubonly refused to accept soft lenses work to the point I was accused of having memorise the eye charts after I had challenged them to select a chart of their choice to see if I could read it. The person leading the session stepped in and said the charts being electronic could be customised so the trainee was asked to type in their own letters in to the chart and it was only after 5 - 10 minutes of this did they finally accept that it was the soft lenses helping me to see.

Unfortunatly he constraints of the NHS does mean that as much as optoms want to develop their skills and learn about new products, they are unable to do so unless they use their own time and money.

Pester power does work along with repeated trips to eye casualty because of the problems I had with RGP lenses finally convinced my hospital that it was worth trying soft lenses and now they have seen the results, rather than seeing me monthly for scheduled appointments interspersed with eye casualty visits, they now see me annually which has been the case now for the past six years or more. They admit that there is a long term saving with the soft lenses in my case.

As with any lesn or treatment, it isn't for everyone, but the only way you will know what works best for you is gradually working through the alternatives whch takes time and patience, hence why we are called patients.


Well, I guess if nothing else your post makes me feel more lucky about my own hospital!

What happened with me is that I actually came from having soft contacts trialled privately. At my first meeting they asked how I got on with them and I said they were good, but not perfect... she recommended trying RGP's to see if they made my vision any better. Basically, they didn't (well, not noticeably) so she said RGP's probably aren't for me as I was experiencing discomfort etc. and they would try various soft contacts from then on. No issues, no problems, I was even given my optometrist's mobile number in case I needed anything! Great service from the NHS imo. Don't get me wrong everything's much, much slower than going privately, but it's a small price to pay.

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Re: Lens Options

Postby GarethB » Fri 15 Aug 2014 7:01 am

Unfortuantly the NHS system is still a bit of a post code lottery and I could go in to the politics of how this has come about through successive governments, but that would be a breach of the forum rules :twisted:

Basically you need to be persistant and give a detailed explanation of what the issues you are experiencing with your current lenses.

What are the situations cause your eyes to go red?
What environment do you work in?
How long can you wear lenses for?
How frequently are you having to use eye drops?
How frequently you need to remove lenses to rest your eyes throughout the day?
What has been tried to aleviate the problems you are experiencing and the results of each?

The flip side is, you could be sensitive the the contact lens solutions and / or eye drops you use. I have to use preservative free eye drops and saline, otherwise even with soft lenses, I will get eye irritation.

At work you say your eyes get tired and red and most people that put that in a post work in an air conditioned office environment. If this is the case, get yourself a Display Screen Equipment assessment which is a legal requirement if you use a computer for greater than 50% of your time. Consider not only the way your work station is organised, but the lighting, proximity to airconditioning, software that is used, how frequent the brakes are. Frequent short breaks are far better such as going to the drinks fountain or retreiving paper from a printer every 30 to 45 minutes rather than taking long breaks after a couple of hours where you get a cup of tea. This is the recomendation for those with no visual problems!

It has been proven that with contact lenses, many people blink less and it has also been proven that if you look at a display screen, read a book or watch TV, your blink rate goes down. COntact lenses, especially rigid contact lenses do contribute to tear film breakup so where at one point you may have never shown symptoms of dry eye, you do now. Put all these three together and you end up with a lot of people have dry and sore eyes when they use a computer in a moder office environment with air conditioning. Many fix this using any combination of lubricating eye drops of which there are many and the most effective ones reprted here are Systane and Clinitis Soothe, having a small humidifier in the vacinity of your work station and substituting cafeine drinks (which includes tea) which are dieretics for water and keeping hydrated.

The more you can make a practitioner understand the issues you are having, the more likely you are to bring about change. Most of these peoples experience of KC is treating people and so have no idea what it is with living with the condition and being so reliant on contact lenses and as our expereinces are so different we need to be very clear on waht the issues are.
Gareth


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