Contact lenses

For people who think that glasses are irritating, contact lenses might be a solution. However, contact lenses also have some really annoying disadvantages. Every day, you have to put them in and take them out and you have to clean them regularly to avoid infections or irritations in your eyes. This daily fuss makes a lot of people look for an alternative solution and a lot of patients opt for a laser eye surgery. Laser eye surgery is not only a permanent solution, it also involves less risks.

The use of contact lenses

A lot of patients choose contact lenses because they offer a convenient solution for people with an active lifestyle. However, in some cases the contact lenses can be disturbing in our daily activities. For sports like football, volleyball or basketball, a contact lens might fall out of your eye at the wrong moment. If you practice a sport on sand, on snow or in the mud, these elements can damage your eyes if you are wearing contact lenses.

Even natural elements can be a source of suffering when you are wearing contacts. We’re thinking about hikers, backpackers, etc… Sand and dust, for example, can be very annoying when they get under your contact lenses.

A lot of risks can be limited by a regular check-up. In some cases, complications occur without the patient noticing it, but they can be detected during an eye exam.

For example, wearing contact lenses may cause hypoxia (a decreased blood supply towards the cornea). This is a complication, where patients usually don’t experience any problems, but an ophthalmologist will notice immediately during the exam that changes are occurring in the cornea. To avoid this condition to get worse, the patient will not longer be able to wear contact lenses.

By taking the good habit of keeping the contact lenses clean and to adopt a daily routine, infections can be avoided, but not all risks can be excluded. Contact lenses ought to be considered as medical devices that need to be used in the correct manner to prevent one of the most valuable senses from being damaged. We only have one pair of eyes after all.

Contactlenzen
Laser eye surgery as an alternative

Most patients are impressed when they learn that laser eye surgery is safer than the use of contact lenses, but it is reality. Research has shown that people who are wearing contact lenses on a daily basis, are always subject to developing a bacterial infection. This is an infection of the cornea which can result in loss of eyesight. For patients who are not regularly cleaning their contacts and who keep the lenses in at night, this risk is even higher.

Different studies have shown that one in two thousand contact lens wearers develops eyesight threatening infections, but only in one out of ten thousand patients, who had a laser eye treatment, complications occur that could possibly affect the eyesight.

However, it is difficult for a lot of patients to compare the risks of contact lenses to those of laser eye surgery. In the case of laser eye surgery, one has to make an active decision whether or not to have the treatment. In the case of contact lenses, people are thinking less. Wearing contact lenses for many patients is something that “has always existed”.

The solution? Gather information. An extensive exam will map your own specific information. Everybody has a different lifestyle, making the advantages and disadvantages for both contact lenses and laser eye surgery different for everyone.

If you would like an appointment or if you would like more information about the options for your eyes, don’t hesitate to send us a message or contact us.

Preliminary examination

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