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Path: utzoo!linus!security!genrad!decvax!tektronix!ucbcad!ucbvax!ucsfcgl!pc260
From: pc260@ucsfcgl.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.med
Subject: Re: 3-week contact lenses
Message-ID: <289@ucsfcgl.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 17-Oct-83 19:18:41 EDT
Article-I.D.: ucsfcgl.289
Posted: Mon Oct 17 19:18:41 1983
Date-Received: Sun, 23-Oct-83 02:55:04 EDT
References: <213@hlexa.UUCP>
Organization: Computer Graphics Lab, San Francisco
Lines: 25

The extended wear lenses have been around  for several years now.  The 
advantages are fairly obvious.  There are a number of disadvantages.

They are thin, soft and quite fragile, and tear easily and need to be
replaced. (expensive, but you can get insurance)  Some people get
protein buildup that occurs within a couple of days, and makes the
lenses not much better than ordinary soft lenses.  They are the only
possibility sometimes for old people who cannot manipulate lenses because
aof arthritis or whatever (other than spectacles of course).
Don't forget amongst all this that a fairly common opinion amongst
ophthalmologists is that many people can wear contacts for about 10 years
and then just start to have problems that cannot be resolved, for no
obvious reason.

The ongoing discussion of radial keratotomy is of interest, but may
be misleading as of this date in that it is USUAL to have to wear
corrective lenses after the surgery to get 20/20 vision
This can however be a huge improvement to someone who has had to
wear coke bottle bottoms.  There is another procedure whose name I forget
but is some type of keratoplasy where the cornea is shaped in a way similar
to shping lenses.  This is much more experimental than radial keratotomy.

Peter Harrison
ucbvax!ucsfmis!harrison