protein on my lenses.....can I prevent it?

[donna]

I know how to remove protein from my lenses, but need some advice about stopping it happening in the first place! Or at least reducing it , it can build up quite quickly and its not always convenient to take my lenses out and clean them in my job, so any tips would be fab
thankyou

[Andrew MacLean]

I am not sure that you can prevent it: protein build up is a reslut of the lens being placed onto a living eye

3.6.11 Why do I have to use protein cleaner ?

Contact lenses are exposed to a complex environment whilst on the eye. The tearfilm contains a number of different proteins which potentially adhere to the surface of the contact lens. The buildup of protein reduces the wettability of the surface of the contact lens which causes a "smeary" or "fogginess" to vision. A protein cleaner, often an enzymatic agent, will help in reducing the potential for protein to adhere to the contact lens surface. One of the benefits of disposable contact lenses is that protein cleaners are not necessary because the lenses are disposed of before the is a large build up of proteinateous material.

I got this from a very helpful site:

http://www.hon.ch/Library/Theme/VisionFaq/section3.html

Andrew

[GarethB]

Donna

Only sure fire way is to stop wearing lenses which defeats the object of having them.

I have found protein build up on my lenses less since using Systane eye drops. The only reason I can think of why this is the case, my eyes are reacting less to the lenses since having started on the Systane.

Systane works best if you remove your lenses when using the eye drops. I have found if you do otherwise, the Systane forms a haze on the lenses like protein build up.

[donna]

Thanks to both of you I will try the drops, no way am I going without my lenses now!

[Matthew_]

The protein being thrown at the lens is a result of a reaction to a foreign object in your eye. The only thing you can do is to try and find buffering solutions which your eye is less reactive too, ie you could try non-preserved solutions and artificial tears.