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Many people with dry eye notice it most on airplanes. A few hours into a holiday flight, eyes feel scratchy and tired, and contact lenses start to feel like sandpaper. The air in airplane cabins is very dry, and that pulls moisture from the eye’s surface. Here is how to plan ahead.

Who is more likely to have dry eye

The National Eye Institute (NEI) lists several risk factors. You may be more likely to have dry eye if you are 50 or older, are female, wear contact lenses, have certain autoimmune conditions such as lupus or Sjögren syndrome, or do not get enough vitamin A or omega-3 fatty acids. Common symptoms include a scratchy feeling, stinging or burning, red eyes, light sensitivity and blurry vision.

Before you fly

• Pack preservative-free artificial tears in your carry-on.
• If you wear contacts, consider wearing glasses for the flight, and carry your lens case and fresh solution.
• Bring any prescription dry eye drops and use them on schedule.
• Get a good night’s sleep before an early flight. NEI notes that 7 to 8 hours of sleep helps.

On the plane

• Turn the overhead air vent away from your face. NEI suggests avoiding wind and air conditioning.
• Drink water throughout the flight.
• Take breaks from screens. Staring at a movie or phone reduces blinking.
• Close your eyes for a few minutes at a time, or use a sleep mask on long flights.

At your destination

Holiday homes often have the heat running all day. NEI recommends a humidifier to keep indoor air from getting too dry, and wraparound sunglasses outside on windy days. Avoid smoky rooms when you can.

When to see a doctor

If your eyes stay red, painful or blurry after the trip, or you are using drops many times a day just to get by, it is time for an exam. Persistent dry eye is treatable, and there is more than one cause.

Travelers heading home to the Conejo Valley can find local eye care tips at a Westlake Village eye care blog.

A small bottle of artificial tears is the best travel accessory I know. It weighs almost nothing and can save a vacation.

Source: Dry Eye (National Eye Institute (NIH)). This article is an educational summary written by Khanna Vision Institute and is not a substitute for medical advice.

When soft contact lenses feel uncomfortable, most people blame dryness. That is often part of it. But a systematic review published in October 2026 by researchers from UNSW Sydney, Aston University and Indian eye institutes suggests another cause is easy to miss: how well your eyes focus up close and work together as a team.

What the researchers looked at

The team searched the medical literature through May 2026 and found 23 studies, including 16 randomized trials, in younger adults and children who were not yet presbyopic. They looked at two questions: do certain lens designs change how the eyes focus and align, and are focusing or eye-teaming problems linked to discomfort?

What they found

• Center-distance multifocal, dual-focus and extended-depth-of-focus soft lenses (designs often used for myopia management in children) consistently increased focusing lag and variability, made the eyes drift outward more at near, and slowed how quickly the eyes could change focus, compared with single-vision lenses.
• Center-near multifocal designs showed the opposite pattern, with less focusing lag and less outward drift.
• Toric lenses for astigmatism improved how closely the eyes could converge and how well people felt they saw.
• Among wearers with symptoms, 23% to 48% had a binocular vision problem, and those people reported significantly worse symptoms on standard questionnaires.

The authors suggest a brief eye-teaming screen, checking focusing flexibility, near alignment, the near point of convergence and fusional reserves, when a contact lens wearer reports discomfort.

What this means for you

• If your lenses feel fine in the morning but your eyes ache after reading or screen work, mention it. That pattern can point to focusing strain rather than dryness alone.
• If your child wears special lenses for nearsightedness and complains of tired eyes or headaches with homework, ask the eye doctor to check eye teaming.
• Do not switch lens types on your own. Lens design should be matched to your eyes by a professional.
• Keep good habits: clean hands, fresh solution, no sleeping or swimming in lenses unless prescribed.

Some blurry or tired-eye symptoms come from the retina instead; this retina education blog explains when to look deeper.

I often see patients who have tried several “dry eye” drops for lens discomfort. Sometimes the answer is a simple binocular vision test.

Source: Association Between Binocular Vision Disorders and Contact Lens Discomfort During Soft Contact Lens Wear: A Systematic Review (Ophthalmic and Physiological Optics (PubMed), 10/14/2026). This article is an educational summary written by Khanna Vision Institute and is not a substitute for medical advice.

Blue-light filtering is now offered on eyeglasses, some contact lenses, and even the lens implants used in cataract surgery. Many people buy it hoping to reduce eye strain or sleep better after screen time. A review published in August 2026 by researchers from the University of Cambridge and the University of Liverpool pulled together the evidence.

Not all “blue-light” lenses are the same

The authors point out that the label covers products with very different light-filtering profiles and goals. A nearly clear coating on everyday glasses is not the same as deep amber evening glasses. They recommend judging each product by what it filters and what it is meant to do, not treating “blue-light filtering” as one thing.

What the evidence shows

• Eye strain from screens: randomized trials and systematic reviews show no clinically meaningful average reduction in short-term digital eye strain with clear blue-filter spectacles.
• Vision quality: near-clear filters keep sharp vision in most studies, but some products reduce blue-color contrast, especially in dim or low-contrast conditions.
• Sleep: strongly amber evening filters can change how much light reaches the body clock, yet several trials found no objective sleep benefit.
• Contact lenses: research is limited, short-term, and often linked to manufacturers. It has looked at glare, recovery from bright light, and perceived brightness, not long-term eye health.
• Cataract lens implants: everyday vision with blue-filtering implants is broadly similar to implants that block only ultraviolet light; whether they protect the macula long term is unresolved.

My practical advice for contact lens and glasses wearers

• If screens tire your eyes, start with breaks, full blinks, good lighting, and an up-to-date prescription for your working distance. These address common causes of strain.
• Contact lens wearers with end-of-day dryness may need a lens material or care-system change more than a filter.
• For outdoor wear, prioritize ultraviolet protection; sunglasses are still important even if your contacts have a UV filter, because contacts do not cover the whole eye.
• If you like how a blue filter looks or feels, it is generally a personal choice; just know what it can and cannot do.

For more reading, see bettervisionatanyage.com.

Source: Blue-Light Filters in Eye Care: A State-of-the-Art Review (Medical Sciences (Basel) (PubMed), 08/30/2026). This article is an educational summary written by Khanna Vision Institute and is not a substitute for medical advice.

Contact lenses are safe for most people when they are cared for properly. The most serious risk is infectious keratitis, an infection of the cornea that can scar the eye and, rarely, cost vision. Most of these infections are linked to how lenses are handled and worn. A survey study published in the Journal of Optometry looked at whether risky habits differ by lens type.

What the researchers did

At five eye care centers in Switzerland, researchers interviewed 156 contact lens wearers between August 2023 and August 2024 using a structured questionnaire. Participants were grouped by lens type: daily disposable soft lenses, reusable soft lenses, rigid corneal lenses, and rigid scleral lenses. The questions covered hand hygiene, wearing habits, and exposure to water or saliva.

What they found

• Wearers of rigid lenses felt better informed about lens care and showed fewer risky behaviors than soft lens wearers.
• Even so, risky habits appeared in every group.
• Those habits included handling lenses with possibly unclean hands, wearing lenses longer than recommended, sleeping in lenses, and exposing lenses to water or saliva.

The authors called for lens-specific education under professional supervision. Because this was a survey, it measured reported habits, not infections.

Safe-wear checklist

• Wash and dry your hands before touching lenses.
• Never rinse or store lenses in tap water, and never use saliva to wet them.
• Remove lenses before swimming, showering, or hot tubs, or wear goggles.
• Do not sleep in lenses unless your eye doctor has specifically approved it.
• Replace lenses and cases on schedule, and use fresh solution every time; do not “top off.”
• Daily disposables still need clean hands and should never be reused.

Warning signs

Remove your lenses and call an eye doctor the same day if you have eye pain, increasing redness, light sensitivity, discharge, or blurred vision. Bring your lenses and case with you. For more plain-language reading on everyday eye comfort, see epilasikmd.com.

Source: Risk behaviors for infectious Keratitis among contact lens wearers in Switzerland: an analysis by contact lens type (Journal of Optometry (PubMed), Oct–Dec 2026). This article is an educational summary written by Khanna Vision Institute and is not a substitute for medical advice.

Contact lens discomfort is one of the most common reasons people stop wearing lenses. Dryness, burning, and lenses that feel fine in the morning but scratchy by afternoon are frequent complaints. One possible contributor is the eyelid margin, where oil glands and bacteria live. A small randomized trial from Australia looked at whether intense pulsed light (IPL), a treatment used for eyelid oil-gland problems, changes the bacteria on the lids of uncomfortable lens wearers.

How the trial worked

Researchers at the University of New South Wales in Sydney enrolled contact lens wearers with significant discomfort on a standard questionnaire. Participants received two IPL sessions or two sham sessions, three weeks apart. In the sham group, a torch simulated the light while the IPL device stayed off. Both groups had their meibomian (oil) glands expressed after each session. Swabs of the eyelid margin were taken at the start, at day 42, and at day 90. Neither participants nor assessors knew who received real treatment.

What they found

• Eighteen lens wearers completed the study: 10 in the IPL group and 8 in the sham group.
• In the IPL group, counts of several common lid bacteria, including coagulase-negative staphylococci, dropped significantly by day 42.
• By day 90, bacteria counts had partly rebounded toward the starting levels.
• The sham group showed no significant change at any time point.

What it means

The authors concluded that IPL reduced eyelid bacteria after two sessions, but the effect faded by three months, so lasting benefit may require adjusted treatment schedules. This was a very small study, and it measured bacteria, not whether lenses felt more comfortable in daily life.

Practical steps for uncomfortable lens wearers

• Follow your replacement schedule and never sleep in lenses unless they are prescribed for it.
• Clean your eyelid margins gently and use warm compresses if your eye doctor recommends them.
• Ask about different lens materials or daily disposables.
• If your eyes stay red or uncomfortable, take the lenses out and get an exam; lid disease and dry eye are treatable.

For more plain-language reading on eye health, see piineye.com.

Source: The effect of Intense Pulsed Light therapy on eyelid bacterial load in contact lens discomfort (Contact Lens and Anterior Eye (PubMed), 10/2026). This article is an educational summary written by Khanna Vision Institute and is not a substitute for medical advice.

Hot flashes and sleep changes are well-known parts of perimenopause and menopause. Dry, irritated eyes are not, yet they are very common. According to a survey reported by Ophthalmology Times, fewer than 1 in 7 women connect dry eye with perimenopause or menopause. The online survey of 402 women aged 30 and older was funded by Bausch + Lomb and has not been peer reviewed, so the numbers are a rough guide rather than a precise measure.

Why hormones affect your eyes

Hormones, including estrogen and androgens, help regulate the tear glands and the oil glands along the eyelids. As levels shift in midlife, tears can become less stable and evaporate faster. The result is burning, grittiness, light sensitivity, and blurry vision that comes and goes. Many women also find contact lenses suddenly less comfortable.

Contact lens wearers feel it first

A contact lens sits on the tear film. When that film thins out, lenses can feel dry by midafternoon, move around more, or cause redness. Some women find themselves wearing glasses more often without knowing why. Options can include changing lens materials, switching to daily disposables, or improving the eye surface with treatment.

What can help

• Warm compresses and gentle lid cleaning to support oil glands
• Preservative-free artificial tears
• Prescription anti-inflammatory drops when needed
• Limiting contact lens wear time when eyes are irritated
• Reviewing other medicines, such as antihistamines, that can add to dryness

Talk to your doctors

If you are in perimenopause or menopause and your eyes feel different, mention it to both your eye doctor and your primary physician or gynecologist. Dry eye is not something you have to accept as part of getting older.

Comfort comes first

At Khanna Vision Institute, we evaluate the eye surface first, then help you find a more comfortable path, whether that means a different lens, a change in wearing time, or treatment for dry eye. We serve women from Los Angeles, Beverly Hills, Westlake Village, and Thousand Oaks.

More eye-health articles at Agoura Hills Lasik.

Source: Survey: fewer than 1 in 7 women link dry eye to perimenopause or menopause (Ophthalmology Times, 09/02/2026). This article is an educational summary written by Khanna Vision Institute and is not a substitute for medical advice.

Isotretinoin is an oral medicine used for severe acne. It works by shrinking the oil-producing sebaceous glands of the skin. The eyelids have their own oil glands, the meibomian glands, which add an oily layer to the tears that slows evaporation. A systematic review in Current Eye Research looked at what isotretinoin does to the eye surface.

What the review found

The authors searched MEDLINE, Embase, Scopus, and the Cochrane trials register and included 43 articles.

• Across prospective studies, worsening dry eye symptoms and objective signs of eye-surface disease were frequently reported.
• Changes were especially common in measures of meibomian gland structure and function.
• Six studies tested ways to reduce these side effects, and four reported improvements in symptoms or eye-surface measures.
• The drug may cause lasting changes to the glands in some patients, although the long-term extent and importance remain uncertain.

The authors concluded that dry eye appears to be a common and potentially serious side effect, and that patients should be informed and screened for dry eye symptoms before and during treatment.

Why this matters for contact lens wearers

A comfortable lens depends on a stable tear film. When the oil layer thins, lenses can feel dry, scratchy, or blurry by midday. If you wear contacts and are considering or taking isotretinoin, it is worth planning ahead:

• Tell your eye doctor if you are starting or taking isotretinoin.
• Report new dryness, burning, or lens discomfort rather than pushing through it.
• Ask whether shorter wearing time, a different lens, or lubricating drops approved for use with contacts makes sense.
• Do not stop a prescribed acne medicine on your own; coordinate with your dermatologist.

Our role

At Khanna Vision Institute we examine the eyelid glands and tear film and adjust lens plans when medicines affect comfort. For more plain-language eye-health reading, see moorparklasik.com.

Source: Isotretinoin and Dry Eye Disease: A Systematic Review (Current Eye Research (PubMed), 08/05/2026). This article is an educational summary written by Khanna Vision Institute and is not a substitute for medical advice.

When soft lenses start to feel scratchy by afternoon, many people assume the brand is wrong. A 2026 study in Contact Lens and Anterior Eye looked at something quieter: the multipurpose disinfecting solution soaking in the case overnight. Researchers at UNSW Sydney asked whether adding a low-molecular-weight hyaluronic acid derivative (HAD) to that solution could ease dryness scores in already symptomatic wearers.

Who was studied

Contact lens wearers with dry-eye–type lens discomfort—CLDEQ-8 scores of 12 or higher—joined three linked clinical trials. Everyone wore comfilcon A soft lenses with monthly replacement and used cleadew multipurpose solution with or without HAD for eight weeks. One trial compared HAD solution with habitual care, another used a matched non-HAD formula, and a third compared HAD and non-HAD solutions head to head.

• Twenty-three participants used the HAD-containing solution.
• Eighteen used the matched solution without HAD.
• Comfort was tracked with CLDEQ-8; clinicians also checked tear meniscus height, tear break-up time, meibomian glands, lipid layer thickness, tear volume, and surface staining.

What improved—and what did not

After eight weeks, CLDEQ-8 comfort scores improved significantly with the HAD solution (mean reduction of at least 7.7 points; P ≤ 0.003). The matched non-HAD solution did not produce a significant comfort change (mean reduction ≤ 3.3; P ≤ 0.13). Those symptom gains generally were not matched by big shifts in tear stability, tear volume, lipid layer thickness, or staining. In other words, people felt better even when the slit-lamp picture looked much the same.

Daily disposable wearers who still reported discomfort were an interesting subgroup: switching them onto HAD multipurpose care with monthly lenses also improved CLDEQ-8 scores (P < 0.008), with a trend toward fewer symptoms overall. The authors suggest better surface wettability and less friction as plausible reasons, and they call for more research.

What this means at the case sink

• Solution chemistry can change comfort even when the lens brand stays the same—ask before you blame only the plastic.
• Follow the label: rub and rinse when directed, never top off old fluid, and replace the case regularly.
• Pain, light sensitivity, sudden fogging, or a red eye that does not clear with a fresh lens needs same-day care, not another bottle from the drugstore aisle.
• Maria, a long-time monthly wearer in our area, once swapped solutions three times before anyone checked her lids and tear film—comfort problems often have more than one cause.

For more regional eye-health reading, browse laservisioncost.com.

Source: A hyaluronic acid containing contact lens disinfecting solution can improve contact lens comfort (Contact Lens and Anterior Eye / PubMed PMID 42508213, published online 07/27/2026). This article is an educational summary written by Khanna Vision Institute and is not a substitute for medical advice.

In 2019 was the US launch of the ULTRA Multifocal for Astigmatism contact lenses, a multifocal toric lens available and offered as a standard offering to meet the needs of many patients with both astigmatism and presbyopia.

The monthly gel lens was developed to fit the lifestyle and vision requirements of these patients. In order to respond to both vision issues, the lens incorporates the 3-Zone Progressive multifocal design with the OpticAlign toric design for presbyopia, thus catering to near, intermediate and far ranges in the same contact lens. The silicone gel lenses are especially designed for optimum comfort, outstanding visual quality and stability, and efficient fitting.

Astigmatism can be caused either by an irregularly-shaped cornea or because of the curvature of the lens inside the eye, causing obscured vision. Astigmatism lenses are the second biggest segment in contact lenses as well as comprise of almost one-third of all grownups age 40 years or over, presently using some sort of vision modification.

“ULTRA Multifocal for Astigmatism contact lenses are the conclusion of multifocal and toric contact lens design efforts resulting in this cutting-edge technology offering and also a direct outcome of the feedback from providers who have been desiring a brand-new contact lens option for their patients with both astigmatism and presbyopia – patients who have been previously challenged because of a lack of convenient lens options,” stated a company official in a press release.

Presbyopia is a normal loss of near focusing capability that occurs with age. As people age, their eyes’ lenses do not change shape as quickly to focus at varying distances, leading to a deteriorated ability to concentrate on near objects. Most people lose some capability to focus on near objects by age 40.

Despite an approximated 32 million patients in the United States with both astigmatism and presbyopia, those individuals were formerly restricted to custom-made lenses, monovision, readers, or total contact lens drop out. All of these choices would still leave the wearer with challenged vision; however, the ULTRA Multifocal for Astigmatism lenses are developed to fill up that demand. This lens is one of the first to offer a solution to this considerable unmet demand in the vision market, according to the manufacturer.

These lenses also enable eye care professionals to fit people with diagnostic lenses during their first visit, instead of requiring a follow-up visit as was essential with custom-made lenses. With the ULTRA Multifocal for Astigmatism lenses as a standard offering, eye care professionals can offer patients a broad range of parameters from +4.00 to -6.00 D in the same contact lenses, with two add powers as well as three cylinders of astigmatism correction.

Contact lenses that are purged down the commode or disposed off in sink drains contribute significantly to microplastic pollution in the seas, said scientists.

The quantity of plastic waste generated by lenses and their product packaging in the USA alone is equal to 400 million toothbrushes yearly, stated researchers.
“These are substantial contaminants,” a scientist informed press reporters.
“There are billions and billions of lenses ending up in US wastewater each year, when they should be going into solid waste, creating hazards for the environment and marine life. They add a load of at least 20,000 kgs (44,000 pounds) each year of contact lenses to various sources of water and contaminate them.”

The scientist, who has actually worn contacts the majority of his adult life as well as began the research study after wondering what took place to all those disposed off plastic lenses, computed that product packaging which is used to package the contact lenses (especially disposables) adds about 29 million pounds (13 million kgs) of polypropylene or the packaging material to the waste from contacts.
Roughly 45 million people in the United States alone wear contact lenses, which would then amount to at least 13 billion lenses worn yearly, considering that a large proportion are disposables.
A study of contact lens users “found that 15 to 20 percent of contact wearers are purging the lenses down the sink or toilet,” stated the researcher.

And what happens to those lenses?
Researchers tracked them to waste water treatment plants, where they discovered the lenses crumble but do not break down.
The plastic bits either flow out right into the sea, or enter into sewer sludge, which is typically put on land as plant food. Overflow after that brings these contaminants back to the seas.
Tiny fish and plankton can mistake microplastics for food and eat them and die or they end up on our dinner tables.
These indigestible plastics then make their way up the food chain, as well as into the human food supply as stated above.

Researchers stated they wish their research study will seem a cautioning to manufacturers of contact lenses, and motivate individuals to get rid of them correctly with various other solid waste.
The researcher said many individuals do not realize that purging contact lenses threaten the environment.
The scientific group found just how one contact lens supplier whose packaging advised people just how to take care of them appropriately.

“Do not put those lenses into wastewater. Place them into solid waste or recycle them,” the researcher claimed.