Contact Lenses on Vacation 7 Simple Tips

When you are on vacation, contact lenses are great convenience - they are invisible and you don?t have to take them off while swimming. However, contact lenses can also spoil your vacation, if you don?t take precautions. Here are some simple things you can do, to prevent it happening to you.

1. Make sure that you have a spare pair of lenses

Even if the lenses you wear aren?t frequent replacement lenses, it is always recommended that you have spares. A lens can get lost or damaged, and replacements might be difficult to find. If you wear daily disposable lenses, take the amount of lens you need for your vacation plus several extra - just in case.

2. Don?t forget your contact lens case and solution.

Most brand name solutions can be bought in smaller bottles, which are excellent for traveling. And you can get a case that clips onto a solution bottle, so the pieces don?t get separated in your luggage.

3. Don?t let water in your eyes when swimming

Contact lenses are great for swimming and all water sports, but it is best to prevent their contact with water. However, water contains myriads of bacteria, which can get onto your lens and cause keratitis. So it is best to wear tight goggles, when swimming. If seawater gets into your eyes anyway, you should take your lenses out as soon as possible and clean them before putting them back in.

4. You still need sunglasses

Most modern contact lenses, like all Acuvue or Focus lenses, block harmful UV rays. However, the lens only can protect the area it covers, which is not the entire surface of your eye. Also, contact lenses don?t reduce glare. So it is safest to wear sunglasses with high UV protection over your lenses, and a sunhat.

5. Don?t neglect caring for your lenses

If you are tired after a day of sightseeing, it might be tempting to fall asleep still wearing your contacts. This is not a good idea - unless you wear extended wear lenses, of course. No matter how tired and relaxed you feel, take your contact lenses out for the night. See tips for contact lens and eye health

If you don?t want to care for your contacts during vacations at all, ask your doctor if extended wear contacts would suit you. Acuvue 2 can be worn without removal for up to 7 days, and Focus Night and Day for up to 30 days; they are great for vacations.

6. Be careful with sunscreen creams and inset repellants

Be very careful to avoid getting sunscreen or insect repellant in your eyes. If it gets into your eyes, it can cause serious irritation. If this happens, take your lenses out and give them a good clean.

7. Wear glasses on long flights

During long flights, most contact lens wearers feel miserable. This is because in an airplane, both atmospheric pressure and humidity are low. As a result, your soft contact lenses dehydrate and draw moisture from your eyes. Many people also nap during a flight, and sleeping in contacts isn?t recommended. If you can wear glasses as well as contacts, it is a good idea to do so in the plane. If glasses are not an option, use special eye drops and make sure you drink plenty of water during your flight.

Keep these simple rules in mind when going on vacation, and your contacts shouldn?t cause any problems to prevent you enjoying your holidays.

Tanya Turner is a contact lens expert and a founder of Contact Lenses Consumer Guide.com/, where you can find unbiased information about eye health and all types of contact lenses with reviews and pictures

Conjunctivitis Signs and Symptoms

Conjunctivitis is a disease of the eyes that that makes the eye sore and inflamed and usually affects both eyes at the same time. It causes the vessels that are around the eye to swell up and the eyelid may also become discolored. It can be a very painful condition although it does tend to affect some people worse than others. It can also make the eye very itchy and this can make the condition worse if the sufferer repeatedly scratches it due to this symptom. Conjunctivitis can also make it uncomfortable for the sufferer to be in bright light and very often it is more comfortable for them to be in a room with lower lighting.

Conjunctivitis is usually caused by an infection but there can also be other causes as well. A virus can also cause it although this is less common. Allergies such as hay fever can also cause it, but infections are the most common cause. If you think that you are suffering from conjunctivitis it is very important to go and see your doctor as there are other more serious infections that are similar and they might want to do tests to make sure that you are not suffering from one of these. One way that they can do this is with special eye drops that allow them to see more clearly the root cause of the infection.

If you think that you might have conjunctivitis it is important that you are very careful, as it is highly contagious and very easy to pass it on to others. It is possible to buy eye drops from the pharmacy to make the condition a bit more comfortable but if it is severe than it might also be necessary to take antibiotics. If you are getting conjunctivitis because of an allergy then your doctor should be able to prescribe some medication for this. Another way to make your eyes feel a bit more comfortable is to use an eyewash, but again you should take the advice of your doctor as to whether or not this is appropriate.

Conjunctivitis can be a very irritating condition that causes pain to the sufferer but with the right medication from your doctor it can be cured so it is very important to get the right medical attention for it if you think that you might be suffering from this ailment. Finally, it is very important to be careful with anything that you use on your eyes to make sure that you do not pass it on to anyone else or catch it in the first place.

Timothy Gorman is a successful Webmaster and publisher of Vision-Doctor.com. He provides LASIK eye surgery solutions, contact lens information and information on conjunctivitis that you can research in your pajamas on his website.

Treating "Lazy Eye" in Older Children

Many eye doctors believed until recently that if a child?s vision was impaired because of a ?lazy eye,? the condition could not be corrected past the age of six or seven years. However, a study funded by the National Eye Institute, part of the National Institutes of Health, has found that amblyopia or ?lazy eye? treatment can be effective in children age seven through 17. In fact, many of the 517 children studied at 49 eye centers showed improvement in their vision.

?Age alone should not determine whether or not to treat,? said Michael Repka, M.D., a pediatric ophthalmologist at the Johns Hopkins Children?s Center and a co-author of the study. Even teenagers benefit from treatment, said Repka.

Amblyopia is a common cause of vision loss in as many as 3% of children in the US. During infancy or childhood, the vision loss occurs when the brain favors one eye over the other. The other healthy eye does not receive brain input, limiting visual development. The most common causes of ?lazy eye? are nearsightedness, farsightedness, or a crossed or wandering eye (strabismus).

The reason vision in the amblyopic eye improves is due to the brain?s plasticity, says Susan Cotter, O.D., a pediatric optometrist at the Southern California College of Optometry and co-author of the treatment study. Neuroplasticity means the brain can change with learning. By forcing the unused eye to work, the brain will process the sensory information and adapt. As a result, vision improves.

Children in the study were divided into two groups, randomly selected. One group wore only prescription classes. The other group either wore glasses and an eye patch or glasses, an eye patch and eye drops. The latter group was also instructed to read, draw, or do other close-up activities as well since ?near-vision activities are visually stimulating,? says Cotter.

The patch, eye drops and close-up work forced the test subjects to use their amblyopic eyes. Children wore the patch for two to six hours per day. Children 12 years and less also used eye drops.

However, ?eye drops blur the eye all day which is why the teenagers wore only patches, which could be removed while driving,? says Cotter.

If children in the study could read two more lines on the eye chart with the amblyopic eye, the treatment was considered successful.

According to the National Eye Institute, 53% of children in the study ages 7 through 12 who wore glasses and a patch for 2-6 hours per day, and did near-vision activities could read two or more lines on the eye chart after 24 weeks. But only 25% in this age group could do the same. Twenty-five per cent of children ages 13 through 17 who wore eye glasses and a patch had improved vision whereas 23% who wore only glasses improved. Of those children in this age group who had been previously treated for amblyopia, 47% who wore glasses and a patch and did close-up work had improved vision. On the other hand, only 20 % improved who were treated with only glasses.

?This study shows how important it is to screen children of all ages for amblyopia,? said study co-chairman Richard W. Hertle, M.D., Children?s Hospital of Pittsburgh.

If children also have strabismus and will undergo surgery to correct the eye muscle imbalance, they should be treated first for amblyopia, says Cotter. ?Surgery doesn?t help amblyopia. If the child has surgery and amblyopia still exists, one eye with 20/100 vision, for instance, will be blurry; consequently it will be difficult or impossible for the brain to fuse the two images together into one,? says Cotter.

Atropine eye drops may serve to improve compliance because the child doesn?t require monitoring. Adhesive patches are also used to increase compliance in young children as it is difficult for them to peek. ?Children can?t be monitored all day,? says Cotter.

Although the adhesive patch is hypoallergenic, some children with sensitive skin experience irritation when the patch is removed. So some doctors allow their patients to switch to cloth patches. Cloth patches with side shields still block vision in the affected eye.

The number of hours that the children wore their patch was through self report. ?This is a real world, treatment effectiveness study,? says Cotter. ?I do the same clinically.?

A new study is planned to learn about the effects of near-vision activities on amblyopia.

Sources:

Article reviewed by
Susan Cotter, O.D.
Pediatric Optometrist
Southern California College of Optometry

Diana Clarke is a teacher and health educator. Her articles have appeared in newspapers and magazines, such as the San Jose Mercury News and the World of English.