by Joel Harrison
15. January 2011 12:55
Recently, the producers of contact lenses have been focusing on improving their wettability and water content in order to increase comfort. The results included products such as CIBA Vision’s Air Optix Aqua or Air Optix Night & Day. The next step was adding wetting agents to blister packs to improve the performance of the lenses even more.
In her article published in Contact Lenses Today, Loretta B. Szczotka-Flynn, OD, PhD, MS, FAAO, cites a report by Menzies and Jones concerning a comparison between different blister packing solutions. The researchers measured several important parameters, such as pH, surface tension and viscosity.
Their conclusion was that the pH of all the tested solutions was similar to the pH of tears, but the surface tension in the solutions with wetting agents was lower than the original solutions. Moreover, the new blister pack solutions exhibited much higher viscosities.
These facts prove that the new solutions have different physical properties with possible clinical consequences. However, Szczotka-Flynn concludes that these consequences are yet unknown and should be examined.
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