Contact lenses - dry eyes?

[Ellemeg82]

I've been wearing contacts for about 8 years now. I have the Johnson & Johnson daily disposable - 1 day acuvue moist for astigmatism.
They've been fine for a while but in the last year or so I've been increasingly suffering with dry eyes. I do use drops but they only offer temporary relief.
I'm already paying £45 per month for these lenses and the only ones the opticians mentioned to help with dry eyes are £57 per month which is just too expensive.

Any recommendations for contact lenses you've found help dry eyes? Or drops that really help? I've been using Boots and Optrex.
I do need toric lenses for astigmatism.

I have the same lenses and struggle with this too. The optician said that Acuvue Moist were the best ones I could use for dry eye. He recommended these drops Amazon - Hycosan drops . There are several types in the Hycosan range but I was advised to use the ones in the red bottle.

They are the best ones I've tried but my eyes still get dry and I have to limit my lense use.

On my optician's recommendation, I cut down to wearing contacts just at weekends when my eyes got really dry in my 50s.

Sadly had no choice but to accept wearing glasses due to dry eyes. Nothing that can be reversed. I hate wearing them, really no but ultimately it came down to a lesser unhappiness than wearing contacts that made me feels miserable discomfort and that was using the super most acuvue.

Just came to recommend these eye drops, they really help me.

I also suffer with blocked tear ducts and put a warm compress on my eyes which helps with the dryness.

You can change lenses, change wear schedule, change drops, but sometimes you need to go beyond that. Wearing sunglasses when you're out can help maintain a moist atmosphere around your eyes and avoid breezes. Avoid running the air-con in the car, don't run a fan in your bedroom overnight, be aware of your blinking habits e.g. do you tend to stare at a laptop screen when you're concentrating. Are you on any medications that can dry eyes, like antidepressants. What are your hormones doing. Do you have any seasonal or non-seasonal allergies irritating your eyes. Your optician should've gone through the various medical, lifestyle and habit things with you that can affect dry eyes?

Unfortunately I had to give up my lenses as my eyes got so dry, I use hycosan eye drops and find they really help with how gritty and sore my eyes get day to day. I buy them off Amazon as they seem to be cheapest there.

I moved to Acuvue Oasys daily lenses instead which I found to be much more comfortable. BTW hope you don't mind me saying but you seem to be paying a lot for your lenses OP, you can get them cheaper online.

I don't know about those specific lenses but I wear ones from spec savers. They are the type that u can sleep with in. I'm not allowed to do that because of my dry eyes but I can wear them for 12hrs sometimes more or less they start to get a bit itchy or dry. I don't wear my lenses everyday though due to dry eyes I prob wear my glasses 2-3 days a week.

Also mine are only £18 a month I think I get enough for 4 pairs a week or maybe it's 5. I don't know I always seem to end up with lots of extra packs!

Just take them out, put them in saline for ten minutes and put them back in again.

Interesting tip re the red eye drops, thank you.

Boots do their own version of this which is slightly better and cheaper.

Late 50s, very dry eyes and wear contacts all day every day with no issues but I too use the hycosan eye drops every morning. They really help. I hate wearing glasses!!

I keep the "juice" in my daily disposables to drop into my eyes or as said upthread, put them back in for a bit and retry.

This sounds weird but I swear by Vaseline around and over eyelids at night. I've nearly always done that and it's always been better for me (but I think I sometimes sleep with eyes open and it seems to help glue them shut ?!)

Also an excellent moisturiser for eye wrinkles.

I wear Acuvue Oasys from boots for Astigmatism, I don't have an issue with my eyes drying, I wear them up to 15 hours a day.

Thanks everyone for the replies and tips.
I might have to try some different drops.

The Oasys lenses were recommended by my optician (vision express) but want to charge £57 per month for those and it's just too expensive for me.

My monthly charge for lenses does include my eye tests, check us and delivery of the lenses. I have looked to get them cheaper before but could only find them a few pounds cheaper, not significantly cheaper and by getting them through vision express I get the eye tests and other benefits that I wouldn't get if i ordered them direct with another company.

I have horribly dry eyes. When mine are really bad I use a heated eye mask for ten mins every morning and night and then massage my eyelids to help clear any blockages. If you google mgd massage you can find tips and video. I saw a lens specialist and the lenses that have worked the best for me are Biotrue by Bausch & Lomb, they’re bandage lenses and specifically for dry eyes. Have a look at a website like Lenstore, you can find these and possibly the other ones at a cheaper price. Best drops, Theraloz Duo from boots and Oxyal which is a prescription. I hope this helps you, it’s the most miserable condition x

@SarahJinx Thanks for the info on Biotrue - I've just ordered some to try them out.🙂
@WarriorN Which Boots drops are you using please?

Anyone's eyes glue themselves shut overnight? I've tried the ointments but if I can manage to get any in my eye at all then by the morning it has dried (like vaseline). How are you supposed to not touch your eye with the tube when you can't see what you are doing? 🙄

Sorry op for rant/partial derail.

Mine have to be peeled open if I have the fan running overnight.

If my eyes were glued shut every morning, I'd be seriously considering sleeping in goggles Actually, though they're almost never used in practice, closed-off glasses and sleep goggles like these are a genuine treatment option for dry eyes, preventing evaporative loss. Have never tried them myself tho.

I’ve had to wear my glasses most the time as my eyes got so dry. I’m pretty sure you shouldn’t sleep in contact lenses either pp.

Actually (continuing on from my post just now about moisture-retaining glasses and goggles, and my earlier post mentioning wearing sunglasses when out and about), I can't speak for anyone else, but while I do notice that some contact lenses are far worse for me than others when it comes to dry eyes (a few months ago, I did a trial of a brand of dailies where I had to use eye drops 20–25 times a day), I think some of my contact lens dry eye problems aren't really down to the lenses at all — a big part of the problem is actually that, without me realising it, wearing glasses (as I do 100% of the time I'm not either asleep or wearing lenses) creates a moist little microclimate in front of my eyeballs, where the air is still and warm and not too dry, which is usually just enough to compensate for my baseline level of eye dryness. I think that's why wearing sunglasses outside helps me so much when I've got contacts in.

Have you discussed monthlies instead of dailies with your optician? I have dry eyes and wear silicone hydrogel monthlies (the sort you can sleep in but I don't) I can wear them 7 days a week 15+ hours a day no problem. They are toric for astigmatism and cost £23 a month on my optician scheme, so includes checkups, plus solutions (I use supermarket own to keep the cost down).

I also do the heat pads and massage thing when they start getting watery and a few nights of that heads it off for a few weeks.

I use the Acuvue Oasys monthlies. They are thicker than the dailies. I find I get dry eyes at the end of the day with the dailies, but not the monthlies. I get mine on- line with Vision Direct.

This is very much not a cheap solution but I ended up getting eye surgery when my eyes got too dry to tolerate contact lenses - having never thought it was worth it before as lenses were working fine for me. My prescription is too severe for laser so I had IPL (contact lenses implanted behind the cornea).

I also wear the same lenses as you. I’m another vote for Thealoz Duo. Either from Boots or Amazon.

Ooh, I've been tempted by that.

My prescription is at the top end of what (some) clinics will attempt to treat with laser surgery, but I don't like the idea of there being no room for error (like, if they need to do an additional correction, but they've already taken away all the cornea I've got to spare). Contacts aren't always great for me because of the dry eye thing, and because I've got moderate astigmatism and my eyes seem very picky about torics.

But… phakic implants, ICLs, IPLs, whatever you call them, do scare me a bit — did they talk to you about the risk of cataracts? Is it a significant risk? What's the recovery like?