More BrandsIt’s common for eye care professionals to recommend switching brands or lens care products (LCPs) for contact lens (CL) wearers experiencing discomfort. Their approach has now received scientific support through the findings of a study led by Dr Daniel Tilia of Australia’s Brien Holden Vision Institute. His team has established that changing the CL-LCP combination can noticeably improve ocular comfort and symptoms in CL wearers suffering from eye irritation and similar problems.
The researchers selected 24 CL wearers who experience discomfort for at least part of the day and 13 who had no such complaints. They were randomly assigned two different CL/LCP combinations ranked as best and worst (combination 1 and combination 2 respectively) with regard to delivering end-of-day comfort. The subjects had to use each combination for a period of eight days without knowing which one it was.
The patients were asked to rate the combinations on a 10-point scale, assessing comfort and dryness relief. Those in the symptomatic group gave combination 1 a higher score, albeit not an overly pronounced one. After eight hours of wearing the contact lenses, combination 1 was rated 7.7 for ocular comfort against 7.1 for combination 2. With regard to dry eye reduction and awareness of the contacts in the eye, combination 1 was also pronounced superior. In the asymptomatic group, however, the scores for both combinations were basically the same. Overall, the study results indicate that almost half of contact lens wearers experiencing discomfort can benefit from switching to an alternative lens brand or LCP.
