Lens traumas

[Louise Pembroke]

All you RGP wearers, do you ever remove your lens and it comes out at a bad angle scrapping the cornea?
This very occasionally happens to me when I'm tired and it scares the hell out of me because the eye really hurts and waters.
Can we really hurt ourselves when this happens?

[Andrew MacLean]

Louise, I think that the answer is 'yes', it is possible to damage your cornea by scraping the sharp edge of a lens across it.

My problem used to be that if my lens slid off my cornea, I'd slide it right back again and the sharp edge would rasp across the cornea. This did not happen often, but when it did I used to need a course of chloramphenicol while the staining healed.

If your lens slides off your cornea, take it out and when you have cleaned it, re-insert.

Your situation is not the same, but I think that the advice holds good; if you have touched your cornea with the sharp edge of your RGP lens, let somebody have a look at it and see if your eye needs some help with the healing process.

Andrew

[Louise Pembroke]

Thanks Andrew, I guess when it has happened I havn't got it checked it out because I don't seem like a whinge. You're right about when it slips off the cornea, because the curvature & rigidity of the lens means that it's simply not possible to slide it back on centrally without scrapping it, this is when the suction pad is good for removal when it's stuck in a corner