Contact Lens Adaptation in Neophytes

Eye care professionals prescribe contact lenses to new wearers on a daily basis, and it is common practice for practitioners to educate their patients to gradually increase their contact lens wear time over their first few days of use; however, there is no scientific basis in the literature for this practice. This study will compare the ocular health and comfort of new contact lens wearers who are randomly assigned to begin contact lens wear with increasing wearing time versus those who immediately start full-time wear (eight hours or more/day). The increasing wearing time group will wear daily wear contact lenses (Acuvue Oasys) for two, four, six, eight, and eight or more hours on the first, second, third, fourth, and fifth days, respectively. The other group will be instructed to wear the same contact lenses for eight or more hours per day, starting with the first day of wear. Both groups of subjects will have their eye health and comfort evaluated at baseline, one, and two weeks with a lighted-microscope and eye comfort surveys. Subjects will also keep a daily log of eye comfort with a visual analog scale survey at home. All subjects will learn how to wear and take care of contact lenses. They will also receive a prescription for contact lenses at the conclusion if they wish to continue wearing the study contact lenses.