Corneal Ulcers and Contact Lens Overwear

Contact lenses have been worn by millions of people for many years, and most of the time presents no problems. When proper hygiene, care and common sense are employed the risk of serious complications are minimal at best. However, very serious issues arise when patients become lazy, complacent and non compliant.

All contact lenses will cause the cornea to become swollen during the normal wearing schedule. Better quality lenses will create less edema and conversely poor quality lenses cause more swelling. However, the problem is always reduced or eliminated by simply removing the contacts. Individuals that wear their contacts all waking hours are at a substantially higher risk of swelling related corneal problems then those who limit their wear to 12 hours or less per day. In addition, people that sleep in their lenses are almost guaranteed of developing serious eye problems caused by the contact lenses. Chronic swelling is always bad, and leads to such things as neovascularization (blood vessel growth in tissue where it does not belong), separation of cells with in tissue, infections and ulcers.

Over wearing contact lenses is a time bomb waiting to go off. In addition, with regard to disposable contacts, when the FDA determines how frequently a lens should be replaced it is not at random. They follow the oxygen flow through the lens and when the amount of oxygen drops below what the eye needs to function properly the lens must be disposed of. Wearing the lens longer then that time period will result in oxygen depravation to the cornea and physiological changes that are always bad. Unfortunately, there are many folks that think since the lens feels alright that they can keep the lens in the eye until it hurts. That is equivalent to keeping a rock in ones shoe until it causes a blisters. Furthermore, there are those people that are simply cheap and will stretch a lens wear out for months to save money. Those are people that should not wear contact lenses since their attitudes will ultimately hurt their eyes and may even cause permanent vision loss due to their ignorance regarding proper lens wear.

The major issue at hand results from over wear resulting in corneal ulcers. With excessive lens wear the cells in the cornea begin to separate leaving spaces between the cells. These areas reduce corneal sensitivity and open areas ripe for bacteria to hide and grow. A colony of these micro-organisms set up camp and begins to proliferate, breaking the barrier of protection for the eye. Due to the decreased corneal sensitivity the pain is not felt for days, weeks or even months at which time major damage may already be done. As the ulcer grows it causes other physiological changes, swelling and may even break through into the anterior part of the eye. Until the patient comes in for treatment this condition worsens. In the best cases, treatment fully resolves the ulcer in 1-2 weeks and there is no permanent damage. In other cases, the ulcer scars and results in permanent vision loss. There are even cases where the ulcer perforates the cornea and the infection gets into the eye. This is called Enophthalmitis. This is an eye threatening disease and can result in loss the eye.

In short, limit contact lens wear to 12 hours per day, never sleep in them and replace the lens as instructed and required by the FDA. In doing so, the risks of problems are minimal. Poor compliance WILL result in pain, suffering, increased cost and possible vision and eye loss.

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