I don't talk about contact lenses a lot, but I received a question that I wanted to address. This person has struggled to wear contact lenses due to their oily tear ducts. The oil causes a film to appear on the lens after a few hours. So, I am going to address what causes this and how to choose the right contacts for your eyes. Enjoy the show. If you want more, sign up for my newsletter at: www.drsamberne.com.

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

contacts, contact lenses, wear, tears, tear ducts, compresses, irritation, oily, production, inflammation, higher water content, cloudiness, question, eyelashes, dry, talk, live, treat, homeopathic, daily

Hello, everyone, it’s Dr. Sam, I’d like to welcome you to my EyeClarity podcast. This is a show that offers cutting-edge information on how to improve your vision and overall wellness through holistic methods. I so appreciate you spending part of your day with me. If you have questions, you can send them to [email protected]. Now to the latest EyeClarity episode.

Hey, folks, it's Dr. Sam. And I'd like to welcome you to Facebook live tonight. It's a real pleasure to be here. And I want to take a question from a patient of mine. And I don't talk a lot about contact lenses, because I don't treat that many of them are or are measured and fit as many contact lenses as I used to. But this is a patient rose. And she's asking a question about her history of wearing contact lenses. And her question is see if I can get it up here, that for the past 20 years, I've tried contacts, and I was told that because I have oily tear ducts, there's a film that forms on my eyes on my lenses, after about three hours of wear. What is your opinion in terms of wearing contact lenses?

Well, this is a great question because, you know, today, what we're really dealing with a lot of is the health and production of our tears, and we either produce too many tears, or we don't produce enough tears. And of course, there are different components to the tears as well, we actually have an oily part of the tears, and then we have a more watery part of the tiers. And if somebody is either a producing, we'll start with producing too much of the oily tears, what that's going to do is that's going to clog up the tear ducts. Now what's behind that could be a chronic low-grade inflammation that is occurring around the eyelids and the eyelashes. And, this is going to cause the tears not to cover the cornea very well. And so if you start wearing contact lenses, which can create a little bit of irritation, then what happens is a person either gets cloudiness in the contacts, or they just can't wear them at all. So what I would say Rose is that I would seek out a contact lens specialist who can try on different daily wear disposable contacts. Some people, do better with higher water content.

So let's talk about that for a minute. So in soft contacts, you can get anywhere between about 35 to 38% water content of the soft lens all the way up to 70% water content, especially in New Mexico, which is where you live but also in other places where there's a dry, you know, it's drier. Using a higher water content lens sometimes can be a good answer. However, there's a limitation on how long you can wear the contacts. And so if you try on different daily wear disposable contacts, that would be my recommendation. And to find a brand that you can wear for three to four hours, say if you're skiing or you're rafting or hiking. And also you can use symbolization or Optique.

Homeopathic eyedrops if they start getting dry, but probably you're never going to be able to wear full-time contacts because of the imbalance in your tear production. Now another thing that you can do, and this works for a lot of people who have what...