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Glau­co­ma affects the optic nerve, which receives sig­nals from the reti­na, process­es them, and trans­mits them to the visu­al cor­tex of the brain. With­out treat­ment, the nerve fibers die, and it will be impos­si­ble to restore vision.

The key prob­lem in glau­co­ma is the accu­mu­la­tion of excess intraoc­u­lar flu­id, which has an obstruct­ed out­flow path. Against the back­ground of flu­id accu­mu­la­tion, intraoc­u­lar pres­sure ris­es, which leads to clamp­ing of the optic nerve, its grad­ual destruc­tion. If the process is not stopped, it will lead to blind­ness, which then can­not be elim­i­nat­ed.

Although opti­cal cor­rec­tion is one of the treat­ments for glau­co­ma, it is used only in com­bi­na­tion with oth­er ther­a­pies. The entire course is indi­vid­u­al­ly select­ed by the doc­tor, the main goal is to reduce the load on vision, restore its clar­i­ty and improve the qual­i­ty of life. But can con­tact lens­es be used to cor­rect refrac­tive errors?

Can I wear contact lenses for glaucoma?

Cor­rec­tion with glass­es is not suit­able for all patients. This is due to lifestyle, active sports or pro­fes­sion fea­tures. There­fore, lens cor­rec­tion is con­sid­ered a more con­ve­nient option for cor­rect­ing refrac­tive errors. But a nat­ur­al ques­tion aris­es, is it per­mis­si­ble to wear con­tact lens­es for glau­co­ma in order to cor­rect refrac­tive errors?

The answer to this ques­tion will be giv­en only by an oph­thal­mol­o­gist, tak­ing into account a num­ber of fac­tors that will be clar­i­fied after a detailed and com­plete exam­i­na­tion. In gen­er­al, wear­ing con­tact lens­es is not pro­hib­it­ed in the pres­ence of glau­co­ma, but it is nec­es­sary to select such mod­els that will car­ry oxy­gen well to the cornea, can pro­vide a suf­fi­cient lev­el of mois­ture and will not dis­rupt the nutri­tion of the eye struc­tures.

It’s impor­tant to know

Glau­co­ma in adults: how is it diag­nosed and treat­ed today

But often the mate­r­i­al of con­tact lens­es does not inter­act well with some drops for glau­co­ma, which a doc­tor can pre­scribe to cor­rect the pathol­o­gy. Some solu­tions for the treat­ment of glau­co­ma can affect the trans­paren­cy of the lens, its phys­i­cal char­ac­ter­is­tics, so you can not use drops dur­ing the peri­od of wear­ing prod­ucts.

If you need to choose opti­cal means of con­tact cor­rec­tion that will improve vision in glau­co­ma, but at the same time they will not harm the eyes, you need to con­tact an oph­thal­mol­o­gist.

Which lenses are best for glaucoma

Due to the increase in intraoc­u­lar pres­sure, visu­al acu­ity suf­fers, the size of the visu­al fields decreas­es. Basi­cal­ly, prob­lems begin after 40 years, at a young age, pathol­o­gy is less com­mon. With­out treat­ment, it pro­gress­es, and patients with glau­co­ma see much worse than those who suf­fer from near­sight­ed­ness or far­sight­ed­ness. And accord­ing­ly, they need a full-fledged cor­rec­tion of visu­al dis­or­ders. The sever­i­ty of visu­al impair­ment is large­ly deter­mined by the degree of dam­age to the optic nerve, since it is he who trans­mits sig­nals from the reti­na to the brain.

Con­tact lens­es, if cho­sen togeth­er with a doc­tor, can solve some of the prob­lems of refrac­tion, improve visu­al acu­ity and reduce eye strain. You can use both soft lens­es, which are com­fort­able to wear, and hard, per­me­able to gas­es, but an expe­ri­enced oph­thal­mol­o­gist at the appoint­ment can choose the type of prod­uct.

He will deter­mine the sever­i­ty of refrac­tive error, assess the con­di­tion of the eye tis­sues and select spe­cif­ic mod­els.

What is the difference between lenses for glaucoma and ordinary lenses?

In gen­er­al, almost all types of lens­es are suit­able, the prod­ucts have no fea­tures specif­i­cal­ly for this pathol­o­gy. It is only impor­tant to deter­mine in advance which of the drugs should be used in the ini­tial stage of the dis­ease. Some of them are incom­pat­i­ble with wear­ing lens­es, can accu­mu­late on their sur­face, and lead to prod­uct intol­er­ance.

In addi­tion, dur­ing the peri­od when you need to take drops in a course, it is rec­om­mend­ed to remove the lens­es so that the drugs fall exact­ly on the mucous mem­branes of the eye­ball.

On a note

How to choose good biweek­ly con­tact lens­es

Reviews of doctors about lenses for glaucoma

“While wear­ing lens­es,” says oph­thal­mol­o­gist Natalia Bosha– in patients with glau­co­ma, 2 main para­me­ters must be observed:

• use only lens­es select­ed by an oph­thal­mol­o­gist (the radius of cur­va­ture of the lens­es is impor­tant — if they sit too tight­ly on the cornea, the out­flow of flu­id from the ante­ri­or parts of the eye may be dis­turbed, which aggra­vates the course of glau­co­ma),
• drops that are pre­scribed for glau­co­ma must be instilled half an hour before putting on the lens­es, or after remov­ing the lens­es.

Sub­ject to these rules, peo­ple with glau­co­ma suc­cess­ful­ly use con­tact lens­es.

Popular questions and answers

We dis­cussed with an expert oph­thal­mol­o­gist Natalia Bosha the pos­si­bil­i­ty of wear­ing lens­es for glau­co­ma, pos­si­ble con­traindi­ca­tions and fea­tures of the dis­ease.