[EZLINK] A contact lens wearer Must Read !!!
Singapore News // Thursday, September 28, 2006 [image: Print
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Three Columns] <javascript:eventThreeColumn()> When the lens
bites *Patients
risk infections by buying contact lenses carelessly and over-wearing them*
Sheralyn Tay
sheralyn@newstoday.com.sg
ABOUT 30 per cent of the 50 to 100 admissions for corneal ulcer treatment
each year at the Singapore National Eye Centre (SNEC) are infections that
arise from contact lens wear. .
This is the estimate given by Dr Lim Li, senior consultant ophthalmic
surgeon at SNEC. While the condition is rare, Dr Lim, who is also the deputy
director of the Singapore Eye Bank, said it is one of the most serious
complications related to contact lenses and can lead to blindness. .
A major contributor to the 400 cases of contact lens complications seen at
public hospitals yearly, corneal ulcers may be attributed to the "fairly
high" rate of patient non-compliance, Dr Lim says. .
In her experience, the most common problem is that wearers buy contact lens
without consulting a contact lens practitioner for proper fittings and
education. .
"Another problem is that they tend to over-wear the lenses," she said,
citing patients who wear monthly lenses for two months and dailies for two
to three days at a time. .
For Dr Stan Issacs, president of the contact lens society of Singapore,
proper contact lens use is a three-fold relationship that involves industry,
practitioners and patients. .
"If any one of these people do something wrong, then we have a problem," he
said. .
One of his concerns is the surge in backyard industries in Third World
countries that are "producing rubbish" and flooding the market with cheap
products. Practitioners who do not properly educate patients and patients
who refuse to take advice on proper lens care are also a part of the
problem. .
Hence, Bausch & Lomb has launched a 12-month campaign that seeks to address
the various lapses it identified in a recent survey of 230 contact lens
users. .
This comes in the wake of the worldwide recall of Bausch & Lomb's ReNu
MoistureLoc solution in May, and the admission in June that the new
formulation of the lens cleaning solution was linked to a spate of fungal
eye infections in Singapore, America and Hong Kong. .
According to the survey, a quarter of contact lens wearers used their
monthly lenses for longer than recommended, while two-thirds did not get eye
checks before getting a prescription. About three-quarters of respondents
did not clean their lens case every two days or less. .
"Wearers need to understand that contact lenses are actually a medical
device," said Dr Lim, adding that patients need to have regular checkups and
follow instructions on the use of the products.
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