Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10.3 4.3bsd-beta 6/6/85; site wjvax.wjvax.UUCP
Path: utzoo!utcs!mnetor!lsuc!pesnta!wjvax!curl
From: curl@wjvax.UUCP (Jim Curl)
Newsgroups: net.med
Subject: Contact lenses
Message-ID: <640@wjvax.wjvax.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 6-Jan-86 21:21:56 EST
Article-I.D.: wjvax.640
Posted: Mon Jan  6 21:21:56 1986
Date-Received: Wed, 8-Jan-86 05:18:24 EST
Organization: Watkins Johnson Co., San Jose Ca. USA
Lines: 21

I have recently purchased a set of soft, daily wear contact lenses.
A friend of mine, who has a pair of soft, daily wear, toric lenses tells
me that he uses distilled water to rinse his lenses after cleaning them
instead of saline solution in order to save money.  I asked my fitter
about this was told that using distilled water, even for rinsing, would
damage the lenses by bloating them with water and increasing their size.
This strikes me as odd since saline is primarily water and since the
enzymatic solution which the lenses must be routinely soaked in is in part
composed of distilled water.

What gives here?  *Is* pure distilled water harmful to soft lenses, or does
my fitter have stock in a company that produces saline solution?

I have also run into a number of people who wear their daily wear lenses
as if they were extended wear lenses, siting that the only difference between
the two types of lenses is thickness (and not a very significant difference).
I wouldn't mind leaving my lenses in over night once in a while, but all
those warnings that I read about my eyes falling out if I don't clean them
every day keep me from trying.

                                                Jim Curl