Long-term with contact lenses beware of eye “stone”

  Min, 24, is a waitress in a hotel. Because of the nature of her work, Min often wears contact lenses, along with mascara and eye shadow. In the past week, she felt that her eyes were dry, itchy, and rubbed with foreign bodies, and occasionally tears would flow out involuntarily, and the symptoms were becoming more and more obvious.  I diagnosed her with conjunctival stones, commonly known as “eye stones”, and immediately performed an operation to remove the stones from her eyes.  After the surgery, I repeatedly told Min not to wear contact lenses …… After half a month, Min felt a foreign body in her eyes again and went back to the ophthalmology clinic for a follow-up appointment and found that the stones had “grown” back. The first thing you need to do is to ask if you’ve been wearing contact lenses for the last two days and the stones are back.  This is a product of the accumulation of epithelial cells and the concentration of mucus pressed into the degeneration, which is actually a conjunctival agglutination, which is not uncomfortable when the location is deep, but when it protrudes from the conjunctival surface to stimulate the cornea to produce foreign body sensation, or even corneal abrasion.  In fact, although called stones, eye stones are not the same as kidney stones and gallbladder stones in the true sense of the word. “Some people are nervous when they hear that they have stones in their eyes, thinking that it is a major disease that requires surgery.  In reality, eye stones are just minor eye problems with no or very little calcification, and therefore not true stones.” In order to reduce the fear of eye stones, the medical community once wanted to rename them “conjunctival agglutination”, but most people still call them eye stones according to traditional customs.  When an ocular stone is just a small particle buried under the conjunctiva and not protruding beyond the conjunctival surface, the patient will not feel the stone and can ignore it for a while. When it protrudes beyond the surface of the conjunctiva, it will bruise the cornea, and when the eye feels foreign and stinging, it can be removed at an eye clinic.  However, some patients may continue to grow new stones after removing them because they are often caused by inflammation of the eye.  Therefore, in order to cure the disease, the patient must find out the real cause of the disease and diagnose whether the stone is caused by chronic conjunctivitis, then treat the inflammation, and the stone will disappear as the inflammation disappears.  Although they are only small lesions of the conjunctiva, they are a “red flag”!  It is important to pay attention to the health of the conjunctiva.  Remind yourself to practice healthy eye hygiene, don’t rub your eyes, keep your eyes moist, and avoid eye strain by doing more transients.  Before wearing contact lenses, you should check your eyes in detail and consult your doctor if your eyes are suitable for wearing contact lenses.  Remind you to pay attention to the disinfection and maintenance of lenses, check your glasses regularly, and stop wearing them immediately if you find any discomfort in your eyes to avoid inflammation.