CONTACTS

[Lisamh1984]

How long do people wear there contact lenses for per day? I am averaging about 15 hours but suggestions to take them out to give my eyes a break dont help as i cant see a thing without them!

[Anne Klepacz]

Hi Lisa and welcome to the forum,
Wear time of contact lenses varies a lot - we have people who manage 15 or even 16 hours as you do, and others who only manage a few hours. The usual recommendation from optometrists is that 12 hours a day is best for a healthy cornea - all very well but difficult when vision is so poor for many of us once the lenses are out! If your optometrist is concerned that you're over wearing your lenses then one possibility for some people is a pair of 'back up' glasses which can be better than nothing. If the KC is too advanced for that to be possible, then another option (one that I used when my wear time was more limited) is to take out one lens for a couple of hours and manage with the other one. Then swap over to give the other eye a rest. Takes a bit of getting used to, but works for some.
Good luck
Anne

[Lisamh1984]

thank you. i will try this out. I manage to wear them ok for quite a while, although sometimes my eyes are tired and red, but not often. I have been reading up on different lenses lately and have seen some info on scleral lenses. do many people with KC wear these lenses and are they any good? I have never been given the option of trying these, so was just curious

[dalbeath]

I'm afraid mine go in at 7.30am and come out when I go to bed so a long time
No ill effects so far though, I have piggy back lenses

[Lisamh1984]

Hello, yeah mine go in as soon as I wake up and last thing before bed. I am gonna try and reduce the wear though sometimes and see how it goes, although I can barely see a thing without. I am in piggybacks also

[Lia Williams]

Lisa,

I normally wear my lenses 15 hours a day and have done so for more than 35 years. I originally had hard lenses, moved onto RGPs and I’m now piggybacking RGPs.

If you really can’t see anything without your lenses it may be worth getting a pair of back up glasses. For years I thought that glasses would be of no use and was pleasantly surprised to discover that they are of some use. Unaided I can see nothing clearly beyond a couple of inches so glasses allow me to recognise people across the table and watch TV. One thing to note is that if you do decide to get a pair glasses, and particularly if they are high powered, it may take you some time to get used to wearing them as the brain sees things differently through glasses than lenses.

Lia

[Lisamh1984]

Do either of you ever get eye redness towards the end of the day when you wear your contacts that long? or are they generally ok? sometimes my eyes tend to feel dry later on in the night. I was prescribed some glasses a couple years ago but they were of no use to me, although I may go and get re tested to see if they can offer me some better ones x

[Lia Williams]

I would say that my eyes are generally OK. Although they sometimes feel a bit dry in the evening if I've been staring at the computer for too long! I do then try to use rewetting drops but I find it easier just to remove, clean and reinsert the RGP.

Good luck in trying to get a better pair of glasses but don't forget it will take time for the brain to adjust. In my case it took several weeks to adjust. Not only was there the barrel distortion and chromatic aberrations to cope with but at first I couldn't walk across the room in my glasses as everything appeared to swim around, but it did get better.

Lia