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Kylie Koak

Cook

PRO

18 September 2019

Dissolving Contacts- Research Assessment

The world in which doctors treat patients are changing, and new ways to solve common

problems are designed for a better success rate and higher efficiency. The development of

dissolving contacts are a game-changer for people with chronic dry-eye, glaucoma, battlefield

related injuries, and elderly people. This thin lens, only one-twentieth of a regular contact lens, is

placed on an eye. Drugs within the lens, also known as a nanowafer, are administered directly to

the eye and will dissolve within hours to days after its initial placement. The lenses are made of

polymers that are either lipid-soluble or water-soluble, which are already approved for clinical

use (McCarthy).

This article is significant to me because I would like to become an optometrist, who treats

such conditions. Optometrists are mostly remembered as eyeglass doctors, but they also can treat

conditions such as pink eye, styes, and glaucoma. These lenses could be prescribed by

optometrists to help their patients.

These new lenses, however, pose a number of questions that challenge its effectiveness.

What would happen if the lenses failed to dissolve? Could this lead to more problems for the

patient than initially believed? I also don’t believe that this would be an easier application

process for the elderly. Having to pick the lens up with a fingertip and insert it into the eye can

be a problem for elder patients that have lost the ability to control their motor skills. Would this
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be at a higher cost than a standard eye-drop prescription? This could put a strain on the patient as

it can be difficult to afford the treatment that is needed.

Problems with the nanowafer lenses have already presented itself at Baylor University

College of medicine where they observed unilateral alkali ocular burn on subjects (“Data on

Inflammation…”). Promoted as a better and generally safer method to eye treatments, this

finding contradicts the claims made by creators of the nanowafer lenses.

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Works Cited

"Data on Inflammation Described by Researchers at Baylor University College of Medicine

(Dexamethasone Drug Eluting Nanowafers Control Inflammation in Alkali-Burned

Corneas Associated With Dry Eye)." Health & Medicine Week, 23 Sept. 2016, p. 362.

Gale Health and Wellness,

https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A463874245/HWRC?u=j191901001&sid=HWRC&xid=6

8409d08. Accessed 18 Sept. 2019.

McCarthy, Colleen. "New technology could replace eye drops." Optometry Times, June 2015, p.

6+. Gale Health and Wellness,

https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A419762747/HWRC?u=j191901001&sid=HWRC&xid=d

8446ae9. Accessed 18 Sept. 2019.