How often should you change your contact lenses?

[annie62]

What's the average length of time you should have your lenses before you change them? I used to have a really nice optomotrist but she has moved on now. However, she used to change my lenses every year, which I was ok about. However, the new optomotrist isn't nearly as nice and says you don't need to change them every year. She says one patient of her's has had their lenses since 2002. I would have thought this was far too long, and surely if you have keratoconus then your eye sight would change on a regular basis anyway, so surely you would have to change your lenses for this reason.

My lenses are very tight now and leave a mark on my eyes. This new optomotrist is blaming my cleaning methods for this and says this could be why they're sticking to my eye. I wasn't too happy about this as I've been cleaning them properly since I started wearing them. I also asked her if my keratoconus had got worse and she said she didn't know. Is this something they have to share if we ask them? Because obviously I'd like to know how my keratoconus is.

I know for sure my right eye, which is the one with the problem, has got worse and the vision is bad, but she didn't really check the vision. She blamed the cleaning but has also ordered new lenses for me to try anyway, saying they will be of a different material. But she still says its not cleaning them properly that's making them stick and be tight on my eye.

Isn't it frustrating when you find an optomotrist you really like, then they leave and you get someone who's not nearly as good, or friendly, and they haven't a clue about your eye history?

[rosemary johnson]

The lens I wear in my left eye is one I've had for 15 years or more (not quite sure when I got it, but it was the first scleral lens I ever had made of the RGP polymer.
It's possible sclerals may last longer than corneal lenses, as they can "absorb" more change in eye shape in the reservoir of tears behind the lens. I presume from what you say about "tight" lens fitting and leaving marks that you have corneal lenses (about 8mm diameter)?
People eye's do change at different rates - if the KC is stable, then a lens ought to last a good long time, if not "indefinitely".
It's not always a very simple yes/no answer as to how KC is progressing or not. One's visual accuity may change - but then, one may also be getting more/less shortsighted, or getting older and less able to accommodate (change from distance to reading) easily. The shape of the "cone" could change - that's the easy bit. But also, the cone could stay roughly the same shape but get more irregular (an uneven surafced cone rather than a smoother-surfaced cone). Or the outside shape could have not changed much, but inside the cornea is getting thinner. And if your corneal lenses are "tight" and digging in, that could mask a shape-change as the lens is moulding the eye surface tot he lens shape.
If your vision is deteriorating (fewer lines onthe eye chart), you are seeing more ghost images, you see worse/bigger/streakier haloes round lights, or you are getting notcealy more light sensitive, then the KC is getting worse. From your point of view.
If you see what I mean.....
Rosemary

[Andrew MacLean]

You know the old chestnut about the length of a piece of string. The answer to that conundrum is "as short as it has been cut", but I am afraid that the answer to the question you pose is not so easy.

In short, it comes down to 'you change your contact lenses when your prescription or fit has changed.

Sorry there is no more definite answer. But if you do have lenses for a long time, this is probably a good thing because it means that your condition is stable.

Andrew

[annie62]

Thank you so much for your replies. I think this is only the second time I've written on here and you've been so friendly and helpful. Thank you again.

I now realise a contact lens can last anytime, that it all depends on the individual and their eye history. I have found another thing too - I'm now 46 and at the age where I'm having to take my glasses off if I want to read close up. So, with my contact lenses it feels like I'm off balance all the time, that one lens is short sighted and the other long sighted. I know when you get into your 40's your vision starts to change, so maybe this is what's happening. How do you go about sorting this out? Do you get bi-focal contacts?

Anyway, my optomotrist wasn't interested in this, so looks like I'm stuck with it - and her!

Thanks again everyone. You're great to know.

Ann

[rosemary johnson]

Hi Annue,
Tempted to say "change your optometrist" - desn't sound very satisfactory a working relationship, does it? - though I know that can be easier said than done.
As regards changing vision - yeah, it comes to many of us, KC or not.
From a practical point of view, it may be most useful to have the contacts set for distance vision, and then get reading glasses to pop on over the top.
Apart from anything else, contacts are expensive and tkae a lot of trouble to fit; reading glasses you can pick up for a fiver in many supermarkets/high street pharmacists. And they're just magnifying glasses, so if you can read at a comfy distance in them, they're OK.
Rosemary

[Andrew MacLean]

At 46 maybe the time has come for you to wear contact lenses for ordinary vision, and then put on reading glasses for close up work. this was first suggested to me when I was in my 30's. The Optometrist told me that I needed reading glasses; I objected, "but I wear contact lenses!"

he smiled benignly, "What do you expect at your age?"

"A bit of civility from an optometrist".

Sorry to have been the harbinger of unwelcome news, but as eyes get older they need extra help for reading, whether or not they have KC

Andrew

[Loopy-Lou]

As I found myself recently Andrew! I'm feeling very middle aged

Personally, I wouldn't wear an RGP for 10 years without renewing it because they are not as robust as sclerals and they can when weakened break when you clean them, my have. I get mine renewed whether the optom suggests it or not because that little bit of plastic is in the eye every day and takes the pressure of the finger cleaning it