Extended Wear Contact Lenses

A lot of people find that wearing contact lenses overnight is of great convenience, since lenses worn overnight don't have to be cleaned and disinfected every day. And if you sleep in your lenses, you can see clearly immediately upon waking, even in the middle of the night.

Lenses you can wear overnight are known as extended wear contact lenses. But extended wear lenses are not for everyone, and not all prescriptions are available as extended wear lenses. Furthermore some eyes simply aren’t able to take extended wear contacts without excessive discomfort.

Also, extended wear contact lenses increase the risk of infection and other serious problems. So if you are considering extended wear lenses, you should take time to learn about them in detail; consider all the pros and cons, then decide for yourself whether extended wear lenses are right for you. Your eye professional will be able to help you with this major decision.

Who Will Benefit from Extended Wear Lenses

• Those needing strong prescriptions. Extended wear contact lenses will provide good vision around the clock.
  
• Those needing convenience. Extended wear lenses free you from the many inconveniences of daily lens care.
  
• Those whose long or irregular working hours make normal daily contact lens care difficult. Being able to leave the lenses in place is of great benefit to members of the emergency services, armed forces, medical workers and shift workers.

Differences from Daily Lens Wear

Most contact lens wearers still use a daily wear regime. This means that the contact lenses are taken out each night and put back in the next morning. Extended Wear users, on the other hand, can wear their contact lenses continuously, day and night, for a duration depending upon the precise type of lens, typically a week or a month.

However, Extended Wear contact lenses put more stress on the eye, and so special precautions are needed. Firstly, you must be sure that your eyes are sufficiently healthy to be able to tolerate this additional stress.

You must also be aware that people who wear their contact lenses overnight have a higher risk of developing infection and other problems than people who wear daily wear lenses. Fortunately, serious eye infection is a rare problem for contact lens wearers, but the possibility must still be considered.

Finally, because there is a higher medical risk, more frequent check-ups from your eyecare professional are usually advised, resulting in added cost.

Extended Wear Safely

Disposable and frequent replacement lenses are helpful in reducing the number of problems associated with extended wear contact lenses. But they don’t represent the whole answer to the question of safe extended wear and you must still take good care of your lenses and your eyes. The following are recommended guidelines safe extended wear lenses:

• Adhere to the wear schedule your eyecare professional has provided.
  
• Replace the lenses regularly as instructed in the recommended replacement schedule.
  
• If you remove and re-use a lens, clean, rinse and disinfect the lens carefully before putting it back in your eye, just as you would with daily lenses.
  
• Periodically give your eyes a rest and sleep without your contact lenses. It is best to discuss the recommended regime with your eyecare practitioner.
  
• Stick to all scheduled follow-up appointments with your eyecare practitioner.
  
• Visit your eyecare practitioner immediately if you notice anything unusual about your eye. The first sign of a problem requires an immediate visit. Watch out in particular for ant pain, redness, blurred vision, light sensitivity, discharge or sensations of foreign bodies in the eye.
  
• At the first sign of any problem with a contact lens, remove the lens immediately.