Keeping your contacts clean and eyes healthy.
Keeping your contacts clean and eyes healthy.
There has never been a more important time in our lives to consider hygiene, germs, and cleanliness. One avenue of high contamination is poorly cleaned contact lenses. Contact lens materials are prone to build up of mucous, protein and other debris from daily wear. There are simple and effective ways to clean the contact lens surface and we need to ensure we are following these very simple rules to help decrease the risk of eye infection, irritation and contact lens rejection. Our lives have been bombarded by the message to WASH YOUR HANDS! Washing your contact lenses is just as important as we touch them frequently with our hands for insertion and removal, so germ transfer is a big and real thing!
There are 2 broad classes of contact lens cleaning solutions available to wearers: Multi Purpose Solutions (MPS) and Hydrogen Peroxide-Based Solutions. MPS's are the more commonly used by patients but the purpose of today's blog is to illustrate the ease of use of hydrogen peroxide solutions. They are non-preserved which means there is less toxicity effect to the cornea of the eye and it also requires less manual handling of the contact lenses by the patient, hence the material integrity lasts longer.
The cleaning steps are as follows and we are using the Alcon lens care product “AOSept plus with Hydraglyde” (readily available in our store) as an example of a Hydrogen Peroxide solution:
- Wash and dry your hands thoroughly prior to removing the contact lens from your eyes.
- Remove your left eye contact lens and place it into the left basket (indicated by an L on the case)
- Remove your right eye contact lens and place it into the right basket (indicated by an R on the case)
- Rinse the closed baskets over a sink with the solution for 5 seconds (NEVER rinse with water, whether that be sterile saline or tap water.
- Fill the clear lens case with the AOSept Plus solution up until the line/marker near the top of the vial.
- Place the lens holder into the vertical case and screw down closed. Do not shake the case, do not lie the case down horizontally
- Leave your contact lenses to soak overnight for a MINIMUM of 6 hours!
After the 6 hours of cleaning, you can remove the contact lenses directly from the baskets and insert straight into the eyes. The hydrogen peroxide solution will have neutralized to sterile saline (i.e. water) hence will not sting or irritate the eye. You do not need to rinse the contact lens before insertion. The contact lenses can remain in the case past the 6 hr mark but it is recommended that if left in the case for longer than 24 hrs that you replace the solution nightly.This cleaning modality is suitable for both soft and hard contact lens users. Hydrogen peroxide solutions are the ‘go-to’ for patients who find that MPS's sting, if they are noticing contact lens irritation by the end of the day, if they have been long term contact lens users and are finding that contact lens comfort just isn’t the same as what it used to be and, in general, is a great cleaning regime for anyone wearing contact lenses.
References:
1. Guthrie, S., et al, 2016. Is there a relationship between Care System and Compliance? Contact Lens Spectrum, 31:40-43
2. Aosept Plus Packaging Insert
3. Alcon data on file, 2014. In vitro antimicrobial activity evaluation of AOSEPT PLUS with HydraGlyde.
4. Alcon data on file, 2014. In vitro disinfection effectiveness evaluation of AOSEPT PLUS with HydraGlyde.
5. Alcon data on File, 2014. In vitro antimicrobial activity evaluation of AOSEPT PLUS with HydraGlyde against Acanthamoeba spp.
6. Alcon data on file, 2014. In vitro evaluation of disinfection effectiveness of AOSEPT PLUS with HydraGlyde against Acanthamoeba spp.
7. Alcon data on file, 2014. Cleaning Efficacy of nEOBO FID 120947A Using Image Analysis Method
8. Alcon data on file, 2014. In Vitro Protein Cleaning Efficacy Study Using the Bicinchoninic Acid Assay
9. Alcon data on file, 2014.
10. www.alcon.com/news/media-releases/alcon-launches-latest-innovation-hydrogen-peroxide-based-contact-lens-care
11 May 2020Return to List of Posts