Friday, October 6, 2017

Can soft lenses cause keratoconus?

If you see those videos in youtube about removing contact lenses, you'll see most of them tell you to slide the lens away from the cornea to the temporal side, and pinch it out when it's resting on the sclera. A long time back when I used contacts for the first time (in 2003), my ophthalmologist taught me the same procedure.

With practice, I have learned to insert/remove the lenses without the aid of a mirror. Now, without a mirror, I can't see the lens if I slide it away from the cornea, so I pill it straight from the cornea instead of sliding it away first. My fingernails are always clipped so there's no risk of scratching the cornea, but when I pinch them out, due to surface tension the lens has some hold on the cornea and i can feel a slight "pull" when the lens leaves the cornea and comes to my fingers.

Will this pulling effect cause keratoconus on the long run?

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