Allergic Reactions to Contact Lens Solutions

Lots of people have allergies. In particular, people who tend to have problems with allergies, are especially sensitive when it comes to contact lenses and contact lens solutions. When you suffer with bad allergies, the convenience that comes with being able to wear contacts is eliminated if you have to suffer with watery eyes, irritation and other side effects. Thankfully, there are some steps you can take to reduce or eliminate your allergic reactions to contact lens solutions. You can keep your allergies in check, and still enjoy the benefits of using contact lenses to correct your vision, instead of glasses.

Increased Lens Deposits

When someone suffers with allergies, their eyes naturally put out more mucus than is normal. This will coat their contact lenses and adds to the irritation of allergies, due to the greater amount of deposits on their lenses.

Preservative Allergies

Typical contact lens solutions have to have some type of preservative built into them to prevent bacterial growth. Unfortunately, it’s these very preservatives that usually play havoc with allergies, usually causing discharge, redness and itching as soon as you put your contacts in. Manufacturers have removed certain preservatives that caused particularly bad reactions. However, many people still have allergic reactions to preservatives commonly found in most solutions, such as benzalkonium chloride and EDTA. Companies making contact lens solutions have developed solutions for “sensitive eyes”, but they haven’t shown much improvement in reducing allergic reactions to the preservatives they contain.

Disposable Lenses

One of the easiest ways to avoid allergic reactions to contact lens solutions, is to avoid using solutions altogether. This is now possible because of the variety of disposable lenses on the market. Rather than having to use contact lens solutions every time you remove and insert your contacts, you can simply throw them away each night and start with a new fresh pair each morning. Not only does this help avoid your allergy problem, it’s a whole lot more convenient, too, since you won’t have to fool around with cleaning and storage each night. The extra build-up of mucus that’s experienced by many allergy sufferers is handled by being able to discard the lenses and start fresh with each pair. Also, there’s no reason to keep solutions around, so your eyes never have to come into contact with the preservatives which are the main source of allergic reactions. The benefits of disposable lenses for allergy sufferers is especially evident in the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s recognition that at least one brand of disposable contact lens has been actually shown to reduce the occurrence of seasonal allergic conjunctivitis.

Clearly disposable contact lenses are a god-send for people who need vision correction, don’t like the inconvenience of glasses, and suffer with allergic reactions to contact lens solutions. Throwing lenses away is the perfect answer. You don’t have to clean or store them. Excessive deposits that accumulate due to allergies are thrown away with the lenses. With no need to apply solutions to the lenses, there’s no reaction with preservatives to worry about. Allergy sufferers can enjoy the best of both worlds; experiencing the freedom and convenience of wearing contacts instead of glasses, and being free from the irritation and suffering of allergic reactions to contact lens solutions.