Question
Dr. Axelrod,
I was wondering, I have been a big fan of opti-free replenish and have been using it for as long as I have had contacts which has been years. Well, I have noticed that my eyes have been getting a bit red. I remembered that when I took out that particular bottle of solution out, I took it out of the cabinet and it MAY have been exposed to the sunlight for a little bit. Will that affect the contents of the solution, and therefore have a pretty good chance of causing the red eyes?
My doctor's office told me that I can switch to Clear Care solution, and use saline to rinse while soaking it in clear care. However, I told them that I also have a lot of opti-free replenish at home, and they suggest that I use replenish as normal, and then just use clear care once a week to disinfect and makes the lenses cleaner and healthier so long as I use pure saline to rinse out all the clear care. I was also told that after the clear care has neutralized, it becomes saline. So it would be safe to clean it out with saline, and then continue on with the opti-free as normal right?
Would that really make the lenses better and cleaner and better for your eyes? I mean, isn't opti-free equally effective as clear care? Do you have any idea why they would advise to use once a week, or is that a new notion? Thank you.
Kristy
Answer
hi Kristy,
I'm a big fan of rubbing lenses to keep them clean. None of the NoRub systems keep lenses as clean as a simple daily rub. Also the no rub systems limit lens life to 30 days unless you rub. (I think all but don't quote me) Both the solutions you speak of are FDA approved as effective and sufficient as disinfecting agents. But rubbing with ClearCare would be tricky since you'd be handling the hydrogen peroxide solution which I don't recommend. Though clearcare is good, it does have a cleaning agent built in, which itself can be irritating to the ocular surface and therefor it does not turn into pure saline like it's predecessor AOSept did. With the AOSept system, you would first rub to clean the lens with a dedicated daily cleaner like Miraflow. They are stopping the AOSept and Miraflow production and trying to compete with the other no rub products with ClearCare as a no rub system. You could still rub with any daily cleaner, rinse off with plenty of saline then run it through the ClearCare system. But that's a lot of trouble. It sounds like your going through a lot of trouble when you are really trying to solve the red eye problem but don't know why you have the red eye problem.
Here's what I suggest.
Stop the contacts for a few days and make sure your eyes can be fine without bothering them with contacts.
Then use a new bottle of optifree and new fresh contacts and see what happens.
Then if you have a problem, switch to a different multipurpose solution like Aquify or Complete or Renu. Probably you'll find one that is ok providing you just aren't contact lens intolerant or poorly fit.
Using the Clearcare once a week as a magic bullet won't make a big difference.
About your question about sunlight:I don't know, you could call Alcon and see if they can tell you. Yes you could do the rinse with saline or even rinse with optifree after clearcare but clearcare is meant to allow the lenses to be inserted right out of the neutralized solution. Rinsing with saline may help if your sensitive to clearcare: but if you are sensitive to it just don't use it at all. And don't use a solution if you're sensitive to it even if you try to rinse it off with saline.
Hope that helps,
Mitch Axelrod, OD
