UK Keratoconus Self-Help and Support Association

Hi, new member here! I have tried using Systane eye drops recently with some good results as I suffer with dry eyes. My question is, can you use the drops whilst wearing lenses? I cannot see anyting on the leaflet inside the box or on the bottle.

Thanks

Sweet hello there and welcome to the forum!

I use Systane as well. I am not sure if it mentions about wearing lenses with it but my optom said not to. I used to but found that it used to make lenses foggy and difficult to see through.

I use Systane morning and evening and Blink when wearing lenses.

Hopefully you can work something out. Nice to see you!

Haydn

Welcome to the forum

I think it depends to an extent on what sort of lenses you wear. Best check with your optometrist.

Yours aye

Andrew

Thanks for the replies, I will check it out.

Haydn

The leaflet in the small bottles does say take lenses out.

From experience if you put the drops in while wearing lenses the soothing effect is short lived and secondly after several applications the lenses become fogged up due to the systane film on the lens.

Adding drops diretc to the cornea with lenses remove means the systane gets to where it is needed. At also avoids the sytane building up on the lens. It needs to interact with your eye to work properly is what I have found.

Initially i had to use systane a lot and the more I used it the better my eyes got so that I could reduce the frequency.

Now only use morning and night.

I pool a little systane in the lens before it goes in, this traps it there and works well. I find putting it in with the lens in place cause brief fogginess and then its OK but it doesn't last as long as taking the lens out.

I use Systane with both RGP and soft lenses. It does create the film that Gareth mentioned, but it only causes temporary blurriness. I find this inconvenience better than mucking around taking the lenses out before hand.

At my consultation this Thursday (MREH Dr Cindy Tromans) the check up regarding a new type of rgp lens I am trying in one eye, the examination revealed crystalline deposits on the epithelium.

As I know I have dry eyes I did ask if I could use systane with the lens and was informed this was OK.

In the one month trial period I managed to get continuous wear time up to 11 hours but only managed this using the systane. Put a drop in eye every couple of hours when working in air con room and when using vdu.
Also drinking 2 litres of water during the working day.

Photographs were taken of the eye for record/further research purposes, with my permission as this has never been seen before at MREH.

I have been instructed not to use the systane anymore or wear the lens until its established was is causing the problem and the epithelium has healed itself and removed the crystals deposits. I have another appointment in two weeks time.

Initial optom thoughts , which to me seem the most likely is that it is the systane, the chemicals in it evaporating due to heat build up through the rubbing/friction caused. Like when salt crystal deposits remain when salt water evaporates.

Anyone else come across this?

The good news/positive development is that, at last, they are now looking at sorting out my dry eye problem.

I was provided with a tube of Viscotears liquid gel to try out to use for my dry eyes.

This leads me to raise the questions:-

1. Do KCers have dry eyes and could this be the cause of why eye rubbing predominates?

Could the the sequence of events which creates KC be:-

Dry eyes>eye rubbing>KC

I will put this KC cause/dry eye issue on another thread for discussion as this is a systane thread.

Impressive Systane website FYI:-

http://systane.co.uk/index.html

Try out the audio eyerobics link on the front page it certainly reduced the dryness in my eyes, without the systane.

Unlike physical excercise it doesnt leave you breathless!

Steven

Are you putting Systane into your eye while the lens is still in?

When I did this everything eventually went foggy and there was a build up on the lens.

Since then I remove the lens first, use the Systane so it mixes better with my natural tears (well what there is of them).

I did find it took a couple of months of continued use every couple hours before I could back off the use of systance to what it is now. Morning and night most days.

Please let us know how things progress as it is important regarding how we make recomendations to people in the future.