Does allergy season make your contact unbearable?

Does Allergy season make your contacts unbearable?

Allergies can make eyes itchy, teary and red, currently relief can be found in the form of eye drops. Contacts lens wearers who suffer from allergies know all too well the struggle with removing their lenses applying antihistamine drops, waiting a few minutes, and then reapplying their contacts lenses. But what if your contact lens was preloaded with an antihistamine that reduces itchiness caused by allergies?

Johnson and Johnson have been hard at work to develop just that and have completed its phase 3 clinical trials. Results were published in the journal of Cornea. The lenses look promising in the ability to reduce eye itch.

Why can’t antihistamine drops simply be applied to contacts? It’s due to preservatives and other contraindications that while may help with allergies can cause other forms or itchy eyes or degrade the quality and comfort of the contact lens. The studies so far suggest a significant reduction in eye itching just 15 minutes after putting the lenses on, that relief lasted 12 hours during use of the lenses for the study period.

The lenses have antihistamine embedded in the lens material itself and though wear slowly release to the eyes surface.

Theses lenses are still early in development so it’s too soon to say when they may be available.

As always if your allergies are getting the best of your eyes talk to your Optometrist on best current methods of treatment, avoid heavy rubbing of the eyes, especially with contacts on.

https://journals.lww.com/corneajrnl/Fulltext/2019/06000/Management_of_Ocular_Allergy_Itch_With_an.8.aspx

Author

Domenico Rinaldi, OD Dr. Rinaldi received a BA in Biology from Whittier College and went on to receive a doctorate in Optometry from the Southern California College of Optometry. Dr. Rinaldi completed his rotations at Ocular disease intense sites, including several Local Veteran Hospitals (LA ambulatory and Long beach VAs), and has worked with Ophthalmology co-managements helping to diagnose Retinal detachments, Diabetic Retinopathy and Age-Related Macular Degeneration, his studies and interest are in ocular health and vision preservation. Dr. Rinaldi strives to make every patient's experience fantastic. "Patient satisfaction and education is the most important aspect of my office visits, I believe it is important that my patients understand how their eyes function and walk away feeling empowered to protect the health/clarity of their vision."