The impact of daily and monthly contact lenses on dry eye, comfort, and beyond

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of daily and monthly contact lenses (CLs) over dry eye pa-rameters and comfort in patients using CLs for the first time.
METHODS: In this study, 33 myopic individuals intending to wear CLs were divided into two groups: One eye was assigned daily disposable lenses (Nesofilcon A, Bausch and Lomb Biotrue), and the contralateral eye was assigned monthly dispos-able lenses (Samfilcon A, Bausch and Lomb Ultra). After the initial evaluation, participants had a 1-month follow-up. They were instructed to wear the lenses for 8 h a day during the 1 month, with a 2-h break on the morning of the follow-up. Var-ious clinical measurements, including ocular surface disease index (OSDI), hyperemia assessment, staining evaluation, tear break-up time (TBUT) measurement, Schirmer test, and tear meniscus height (TMH) assessment using optical coherence tomography (OCT), were conducted. Comfort was subjectively assessed with CLs dry eye questionnaire-8 (CLDEQ-8) at the 1-month follow-up, and participants rated end-of-day comfort on a scale from 0 to 100. The study compared comfort levels and examination parameters between daily and monthly lens use.
RESULTS: In the 1-month follow-up examination, there was no significant difference between eyes in terms of OSDI, hyper-emia, ocular surface staining, TBUT, Schirmer test, and TMH (p>0.05). CLs comfort was higher in those using daily CLs when examined with CLDEQ-8 test (daily CL: 8.93, monthly CL: 4.29, p=0.04). However, end-of-the-day comfort was higher in monthly CLs users (daily CL: 89, monthly CL: 95, p=0.04).
CONCLUSION: In the short term, Nesofilcon A was found to be more advantageous in terms of comfort compared to Samfilcon A. However, since end-of the day comfort was higher in Samfilcon A, for patients starting to use CLs during the adaptation phase, it may be preferred over Nesofilcon A.