30-Day Contact Lenses:
A Smart Alternative to LASIK?
By Rob Murphy;
reviewed by Dr. Joseph T. Barr
and Dr. Vance Thompson
If you're interested in LASIK, but either don't want surgery or aren't a
candidate, you may want to consider continuous wear contact lenses, which are
U.S. Food and Drug Administration-approved
for up to 30 consecutive days of wear without removal.
Like LASIK, 30-day contact lenses offer hassle-free good vision. Let's consider
the relative merits of both in terms of safety, effectiveness, and cost.
Safety
Both contact lenses and laser eye surgery are safe for the overwhelming majority
of patients, but each carries some risk. Sleeping in contact lenses increases
the chance of infection. For laser eye surgery, the
risk is mostly dry eyes and
visual abnormalities.
Continuous wear contacts. The 1980s first brought us 30-day contact lens wear,
but that changed when people wearing their lenses for up to 30 days in a row
began having more eye infections. Shortly thereafter, the FDA reduced wear time
to a maximum of one week.
So what's different now? A new contact lens material
silicone hydrogel that
allows six to seven times more oxygen to permeate the lens and thereby keep the
cornea healthy.
Even so, overnight wear of contacts isn't for everyone, and people who have had previous
problems with contacts may not be good candidates for 30-day wear.
Laser vision correction. The vast majority of LASIK patients enjoy good
uncorrected vision after surgery with minimal (if any)
complications. Nighttime
glare and dryness remain a problem for some patients, at least in the near term.
But newer lasers with eye trackers and larger treatment zones allow surgeons to
minimize the risk of these glare complications. Eye trackers reposition the
laser if your eye moves. Doctors sometimes treat a larger area of the cornea in
patients whose pupils are larger than average, to ensure good vision after
surgery. In addition, years of laser vision correction experience have taught
surgeons to be better at screening out poor candidates for surgery, who are more
likely to experience post-surgical problems.
Tired of not being able to see when you wake up? Maybe it's time to consider a 24-hour vision correction option.
Effectiveness
Both 30-day contacts and LASIK can produce excellent vision quality for the
right candidates. But in addition to your immediate visual outcome, each has
implications for your vision later in life that many people don't consider.
Continuous wear lenses. With 30-day contact lenses, most people can be
immediately assured of good, sharp vision. If you'd rather have no doubt
whatsoever about the visual outcome, then 30-day contact lenses may be a better
option for you than laser vision correction.
With contact lenses, you also have the flexibility to change the prescription
down the road, should the need arise. And wearers entering their
presbyopic
years can switch to bifocal contact lenses, or they can use
reading glasses in combination with their distance contacts.
Laser vision correction. Today surgeons are more experienced, and laser
technology has improved. Consequently, the visual acuity experienced by LASIK
patients is statistically better than ever.
These visual results are also partly due to
custom LASIK, first approved by the
FDA in 2002, which uses sophisticated mapping technology to correct subtle
visual abnormalities. Laser manufacturers tout the fact that many custom LASIK
patients are actually able to see better than 20/20 but for many people, the
same is true of contact lenses.
Bear in mind that LASIK can't completely fix
presbyopia, though a
monovision
procedure can help. So if you've had LASIK, at some point you will still need
reading glasses, or bifocal contact lenses with no correction for distance.
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