Air Bubbles

[Drew Radcliffe]

Hi All

Sure ive read this before but i can't find it and my eyes are hurting too much to keep going.

Just got a new pair of Sclerals from moorfields. Its my first pair and they seem to be doing what I wanted them to. I can get them in and out really easily, no bubbles and I see well for about 10 mins. Then an air bubble appears and im back to square one.

Are my lenses haunted? And is there anything i can do to stop this?

Drew

[John Smith]

Hello Drew,

Are you sure that the air bubbles aren't there from the insertion? It could be that they're just too tiny to notice with our poor eyesight until they've coalesced into one larger bubble.

And I've certainly encountered discomfort when there's a bubble under the lens.

Or of course, you could be right -- haunting is a distinct possibility

[Sajeev]

Hi Drew,
I remember someone telling me to fill up a sclearal lens right to the top....i mean right to the top before insertion...so that some of the saline displaces thus leaving only the saline in between your eye and lens in one insertion swift motion and so avoiding the bubbles...

Also i read a post where someone would leen out of the bed....placing all your bits a bobs on the floor....and tucking their chin in...and while leening over the side of the bed inserting there sclearal that way....they said that they did not have problems doing it that way with bubbles....

Also someone told me inserting the sclearal was easier leening over the bathroom sink...and remembering to tuck you chin in while inserting your lens....also you have the added benifit of if you drop your lens, it would be easily found and recovered from the sink....

I think it is the ablity to leen over horizontaly and having a right to the top, full up saline in your sclearal which will be help you crack the code....I am sure you will pick up the nack!!!....I know it takes time....

Catch you later

[Shirley O'Donnell]

I fully sympathise with this problem, having been cursed with air bubbles in my sclerals from the start. Perseverence is certainly the key word and I agree it is also necessary to fill them right up to the top with saline. I started with mini sclerals and simply could not wear them for any length of time because of the rapid emergence of air bubbles. However, Ken Pullum then took a mould of my eye and made me a full size custom fitted scleral lens. This has been absolutely brilliant - the only drawback is the time it takes to make these perfect lenses! Good luck!

[Susan Mason]

Hello Drew

I think my lenses are haunted too, maybe we should start a club?
Seriously though I can quite often have the problem you are describing and it is now 21 months since I got my first pair of lenses. I find if I am in a hurry or going anywhere special things often go wrong. I have tried many different positions and have quite often had more sterile saline on me, the floor and the bed, not to mention the drips coming down from inside my nose, well it has to run out somewhere doesn't it?
When I first mentioned it at the hospital I felt really silly and then he realised I cant actually see which way round my lenses are without them in so that was not helping. The next step was to get the lenses marked for me however where I was told the markings should be in relation to the lenses when I insert them didn't seem quite right. At next visit to the hospital it was confirmed for me that the markings were slightly different to where they had originally been thought to be. After that things got a lot better and when the lenses were refitted, both within the last 7 months it has been trial and error on my part to see how they best went in, the marking on the right one whilst I was told should be at 12 o'clock seems to be more like 10 to and seems to cause little if any problems when I put it in as so.
My advice would be don't give up, my vision is certainly much better with them in even if it is fraught at times. I also tend to sit and flutter my eyelashes a little once they are in, this tend to bring the bubbles on from no where when they are destind to arrive, then I start again. Previous to this I would often think all was fine and then suddenly as if by magic they would appear and usually in both eyes and sometimes in multiple, all tiny little pin heads.

Maybe we are special???

Take care Susan

[Lisa Nixon]

I use corneal lenses and always fill them with Opti Tears before I put them in, this makes them much more comfortable and really seems to stop the air bubbles. It's quite an art balancing a full lens on a finger tip but I'm getting quite good at it now. I find Opti Tears better than saline as they lubricate the eye more. Best of luck. Tubs

[jayuk]

I had thee problem with Sclerals

What I found was that the bubbe would appear very small at the TOP of the lens after it was inserted and then get bigger and bigger untill you can actually notice it.

What I did was when inserting the lens, I ensured the top part of the lens went it higher in the eye....if that makes sense.......

Depending on your technique....i gen bend over the sink, pull up my top eye lid and place the top half of the lens in first but make sure it high up on the scleral........since then I have not had the bubble problem.....