Drug dispensing contact lens could change the treatment of glaucoma.
California researchers have come up with the idea of special contact lenses to treat glaucoma.Still at the development stage, a new contact lens that has the ability to dispense drugs could be used instead of drops to treat the sight loss causing condition, glaucoma.
The currently used drops can cause a variety of side effects;
- light sensitivity,
- dry eyes
- headaches.
Many patients have trouble administering the drops. In some cases, only 5 percent of the medication arrives at the intended destination in the eye, with some drops inserted so fast that they spill out of the patient’s eyes. These new contact lens would continuously deliver the medication directly into the eyes for up to a month.
How do these drug dispensing contact lens work ?
The novel lenses represent a combination of medication for glaucoma and nano-diamonds, which industry creates by diamonds being destroyed collection of the resulting soot, full of diamond particles. The combination of medication and nano-diamonds is embedded in the novel lenses. Once the medication interacts with tears, it releases into the patient’s eye.
No information is available yet as to when these contact lenses could be available to the public.
