Veteran contact wearer now having trouble with contacts. What's the best br!
Question: Veteran contact wearer now having trouble with contacts. What's the best brand?
I'm a college student (premed) and I read a lot and use the computer for an ungodly amount of time every day (though I try to avoid online textbooks at all costs). I would love to find contacts that are worth the price for a positive difference and let me wear them longer. Is there anything out there that you would recommend? Also how long do you wear contacts during the day and do you have issues switching to glasses? Thanks!
Answers:
You are probably reading and using the computer much more this year than you ever have before.
Those two activities don't go well with contacts...especially real long computer time.
Long hours at the computer even make peoples eyes get dry who don't wear contacts, and it's 10 times worse for those who do.
Either go through a bottle a week of rewetting drops for your contacts, or wear your glasses more at the computer.
Either way...you also need to train yourself to look away from the monitor much more often , and take lots of breaks , even just a few minutes at a time.
Changing brands likely won't change a thing . You are just forcing your eyes to do a lot more work than what they are comfortable doing with contacts on.
Optician
I agree with most of what Footprintz said; your symptoms are probably due to using your eyes way more than you used to. It's possible that you're having some sort of delayed solution reaction or intolerance to the lens material, but I wouldn't bet on it. You may also get some benefit out of a lens designed to reduce fatigue; it's not overly common, but I have a couple young patients using multifocal lenses intended for presbyopia to increase the comfort of their near vision.
Bottom line: go bug your eyecare provider and get them to look at your eyes; they'll be able to see if there's something physiologically going on, or if you'll just have to take it easy for a while.
I'm an optometrist.