Dry Eyes With Contact Lenses: What Helps, and When to Book

Comfortable in the morning, dry by mid-afternoon

This is the most common thing contact lens wearers tell us. The lens feels fine when it goes in, and by three o'clock it is dry, your vision smears between blinks, and you are counting the hours until you can take it out. A drop helps for a few minutes. Then it comes back.

There are three usual causes, and they are treated differently.

1. The lens

The material, the fit or the replacement schedule may no longer suit your eye. Lenses that were right five years ago are not always right now. This is checked at a contact lens check-up, and it is often the simplest fix.

2. The solution

Your solution is prescribed to match your lens material and the biology of your eye. If it has been swapped for another brand, or your eye has become sensitive to a preservative, lenses can feel dry and irritated even when the lens itself is right. More on this in why your contact lens solution is prescribed.

3. Dry eye underneath the lens

Dry eye and blepharitis very often show up first as contact lens discomfort. A lens sits in the tear film, so if the tear film is unstable, the lens is the first thing you notice. Changing lenses or drops will not fix this. It needs to be measured and treated.

Which eye drops can go in over a contact lens

If a drop is going in over a lens, it should be preservative-free. A soft lens holds whatever is in the drop against your cornea, so a preservative that would be diluted in seconds on a bare eye stays there for hours.

Preservative-free lubricating drops that can be used with lenses in include Hylo-Fresh, Hylo-Forte, Systane Hydration UD and TheraTears single-use vials. Gels, night ointments and manuka honey drops such as Optimel are used with the lenses out. Optimel is once a day only, ideally at night, and it stings briefly.

We keep the full list, with what each drop is for, on our store: eye drops for contact lens wearers. You can order from the preservative-free eye drops range, shipped NZ-wide from Hamilton.

When a drop is not enough

If you need a rewetting drop several times a day, the drop is treating the symptom. That is the point to have your eyes looked at properly.

A Dry Eye Evaluation is an in-depth assessment with one of our optometrists. We measure your tear film, lids and oil glands, work out what is driving the dryness, and plan treatment. Book a Dry Eye Evaluation. It's a paid appointment, and the fee is confirmed when you book.

Not sure whether it is the lens or your eyes?

Start with a contact lens check-up and bring your lenses, case and solution. Our optometrists fit soft, rigid, ortho-K and scleral lenses, and all of them manage dry eye as part of their clinical practice.

Book a contact lens check-up or call us on 07 847 3195.

If your eye is red, painful or light-sensitive, or your vision has dropped, take the lens out and ring us the same day.

This is general information. Always follow the advice your own optometrist has given you, and read the label of any drop before using it with lenses in.

From the Rose Optometry optometrist team

Contact lens comfort and dry eye are looked after by our whole optometrist team: Jagrut Lallu, Jacqueline Rowe, Emilie Lawson, Jason Shen, Jessica Wood, Stella Wong and Anjali Hira. Whichever of us you see, we work from the same approach.