Is it me or the contacts?

April 5, 2008 9:21 AM

I bought B&L Soflens 59 contact lenses online and they don't seem to hold moisture. Is it me or the contacts?

I bought them from justlenses.com. My eye guy tried to prescribe me Shopko brand lenses and wouldn't budge (and also tried to keep my prescription from me) so I opted to buy on the internet. He did give me a sample pair which I wore for about a month with no problems at all except a little dryness during extended lengths at the computer.

I opened the new box, put them in, and they immediately stuck to my eye. I put them in some solution for a week and tried again--again, they stick to my eye without floating on a layer of moisture like I'm used to. Eye drops don't seem to make any difference. My sample pair don't have this problem. Are these contacts shot or are they supposed to be like that?

Also, I wear NuvaRing, which apparently can cause intolerance to contact lenses. Why is this? Does anyone have any experience with this?

posted by sian to Health & Fitness (2 answers total)

They may be the wrong size for your eye. Do you still have the sample wrapper? Check to see if they (the free sample) are same size as the one written on the prescription. Then, check to see that the prescription was filled correctly by the online store.
posted by Eringatang at 3:12 PM on April 5, 2008

Have you opened a new bottle of lens solution lately? I had the exactly same problem, apparently because the formula of the brand I had always used had been slightly changed - I was puzzled for quite some time because I was, after all, still using the same brand, and also thought that the new lenses must be the problem! As soon as I switched solutions, I was fine (actually, my eyes seem to like cheap brands best, the fancy stuff tends not to work so well with me, all those "special moisture formulas" make my eyes terribly dry).

Data point: NuvaRing did not influence my contact lens tolerance. On a side note: My optometrist claims that hormonal contraception, including NuvaRing, can lead to aggravating short-sightedness in some people (but this would only be interesting if your eyes got more and more myopic, which seems not to be your problem).
posted by The Toad at 2:43 AM on April 6, 2008