Driving glare & post graft lenses

[Leanne Robins]

Hello all,

I am newly registered to this forum, however have been reading it as a visitor for a long while...but now I have a question.

I am wearing RGP's and find the glare when driving at night horrendous... My optometrist is going to try some post graft lenses to see if these make a differnece with glare at night (apparently it worked with another one of her KC patients). Has anyone had any sucess with solving this problem or in the use of post graft lenses? I am not wanting to give up driving at night...but am becoming desperate in my attempt to try and find a solution...

Any thoughts?

Thanks
Leanne

[GarethB]

Hi Leanne and welcome to forum.

I am nearly 20 years post graft and glare can be a problem driving at night.

this is how I have overcome as best I can the problem;

1) My lens have a light blue tint.

2) I find I need to keep the inside of the windscreen extremely clean. The chaepest and best specialist cleaner is Autoglym Car Glass polish which is good for the inside and out. If you have never cleaned the inside of your windscreen before it will take several goings over and you will be surprised at the muck it removes. Means the car fogs up less too as the droplets are finer so the window clears quicker too.

3) My car and my wifes car both have a very light tint added to all the windows. This is a specialist thing, but on my cars it is CS Panther 50 Film made by 3M. Helps keep the car cool too. 33% Total Solar energy reflected, 42% glare reduction, 18% Heat reduction, 99% UV reduction, 0.77 Shading coefficient, 51% Visible light transmission and 7 % visible light reflected. Many modern cars like mine already have tinted windows but this film is OK on mine however if your windows already have a high degree of tinting this might not be suitable.

4) Anti-glare driving glasses which are sometimes advertised in the inivasion catagogues in the sunday papers or in the classifieds of some motoring magazines. Personally I hate these because I find the uncomfortable and everything goes an odd shade of yellow that makes me feel ill.

I also find that as long as I am well hydrated and not tierd while driving this helps with my tolerance to glare and light.

Hope this helps.

Gareth

[Leanne Robins]

Hi Gareth,

Thanks for the reply - I had not thought of adjusting the car window tint and windscreen rather than my eyes - but it certainly has some merit.

I never had difficulties with glare when I was not wearing keratoconus RGP's - so I guess it is all to do with the optical area in the lens as much as anything. All ideas are appreciated...thanks
L

[Ali Akay]

Hi Leanne
You are quite right that the relatively small optic area of a RGP keratoconus lens could be a cause of glare due to internal reflections.In some designs eg Rose K, the optic area gets progressively smaller as the lens radius gets steeper, and depending on the degree of your KC the optic zone could be smaller than 5mm.This doesnt cause too much problem daytime, but is more troublesome at night as your pupils dilate in poor light. Post-graft lenses have much larger optic zones (usually around 8mm) and hence they should help with glare. BUT, the fit will be a compromise as the contact lens profile will not follow the shape of your corneas closely, and this could result in undue pressure on the apex of the cone with risk of scarring.It could also allow bubbles forming under the lens which will distort your vision.If your KC is mild it might work, but less likely if you have moderate-advanced cones. The other issue is that KC lenses often need much more peripheral flattening than post graft lenses, hence standard post graft lenses would be tight at the edges, but your optom could specify a flatter peripheral fit. What I sometimes do is keep to a KC design, but specify a slightly larger and flatter optic zone which could work. Other possibilty is soft lenses which are a viable option unless your KC is very advanced.

[Leanne Robins]

Hi Ali,

Thanks for your thoughts. The issues with fitting and the compromise in doing so are also a concern for my optom, hence she is suggesting only wearing the lenses for driving/night wear etc.

I currently use Rose K lenses, not sure what the optical field is on them. I will explore the option of soft lenses again, but I think I am beyond them now sadly... although I wore toric soft lenses for the first few years and never had glare probs.

Thanks again for your thoughts
L