Remedies for
Contact Lens Discomfort

Uncomfortable contact lenses? One or more of these remedies may be what you need. Let your eye doctor decide which ones will work best for you.

Artificial Tears

Artificial tears can relieve occasional dryness. Follow your eye doctor's recommendations, because some eye drop brands are incompatible with certain kinds of contact lenses. Incompatible drops can discolor and ruin lenses. Also, not all drops are designed and approved for use with contact lenses.

For dryness, don't use products advertised to "get the red out" — their job is to constrict the eye's blood vessels. That eliminates the red appearance but doesn't treat the underlying problem. [back to contact lens problems]

Nutritional Supplements

To be comfortable in contact lenses, you need to produce enough tears. But it's not just the quantity of tear production that important, it's also the quality. One example is poor tear chemistry, which can lead to rapid tear evaporation — this is just as much a problem as not producing enough tears in the first place.

Research has found that the omega-3 fatty acids in salmon and other fish, as well as flaxseed oil, can improve the oily part of tear composition, which discourages tear evaporation. Learn more in our Nutrition & Eyes section. [back to contact lens problems]

Punctal Occlusion

This involves blocking your tear ducts by inserting a tiny piece of silicone or acrylic, called a punctal plug, to decrease tear drainage and thereby keep more tears in your eyes. Temporary, dissolving plugs are available so you can "test drive" this option to see if it works for you. Learn more from our punctual occlusion article. [back to contact lens problems]

Contact Lenses for Dry Eyes

If your current lenses fit well and you still experience discomfort, you and your eye care professional may decide to switch to a different type of lens or a different wear schedule. There are myriad types of contact lenses available today, and patients sometimes find newer options are more comfortable than their old lenses. Advances in the materials and designs used to manufacture contact lenses have made it easier for doctors to choose the lens that will best fit your eye and your condition.

• Daily disposables. If lenses with built-up deposits are making you uncomfortable, then starting each day with a new lens may help. This is especially true if you suffer from allergies and are bothered by the airborne allergens that can stick to your lenses; or if your tear chemistry is such that difficult-to-remove lipids and proteins are accumulating on your lenses. Several brands of daily disposable lenses are available from the major contact lens manufacturers.
• Lower water lenses. You might think that lenses with a high percentage of water content would be moist and comfortable; but it's often the opposite. Lenses with a high water content need to be in a very moist environment, or they will dehydrate and become uncomfortable. If your eyes are dry, you might benefit from a lower-water lens than what you're currently wearing.
• Silicone hydrogels. These relatively new lenses allow more oxygen to reach the eyes, which can mean greater comfort, and they tend to dehydrate less than traditional lenses. Silicone hydrogel brands include CIBA Vision's O2Optix and Night & Day, PureVision from Bausch & Lomb, and Johnson & Johnson's Acuvue Advance and Oasys.
• FDA-indicated for dryness. Some non-silicone-hydrogel lenses have been specially developed to relieve dryness. For example, CooperVision's Proclear lens has FDA clearance for the claim: "may provide improved comfort for contact lens wearers who experience mild discomfort or symptoms relating to dryness during lens wear." Extreme H2O is a brand that does not have such an FDA designation but is favored by some practitioners for dry-eyed patients. [back to contact lens problems]

Contact Lens Care Products

Use the brand of contact lens solution your eye doctor specifies. Using solutions or rewetting drops that aren't compatible with your contacts may degrade the quality of the lenses, affecting both visual quality and comfort.

Some lens care systems might work well for most people, but you might be the exception. If your lenses aren't getting clean enough, they can irritate or damage the surface of your eye. In this case, your doctor might switch you to a system that requires a bit more work on your part but may do the job better.

Even if your lens care solutions or eye drops work well at first, some people over time can develop sensitivity to certain formulas, especially those with preservatives. Your eye doctor may want you to switch to either non-preserved care systems or to daily disposable lenses, which require no cleaning solutions.  [back to contact lens problems]

Orthokeratology

If all-day contact lens wear is causing you problems, maybe you should try wearing your lenses only at night. Orthokeratology is a method of reshaping the surface of your eye (the cornea), with special contact lenses worn during sleep, to enable glasses- and contacts-free vision during the day. Many eye care practitioners feel that orthokeratology (or ortho-k) is especially appropriate for people who spend time in dry, dusty environments; and for teens that are active in sports.

Ortho-k offers many of the benefits of LASIK — but since it's not a surgical procedure, the effect is temporary, and it is reversible.

[Page updated December 2008]