The question of which solution to use comes up often in my Roodepoort practice, and so I will try and break it down in a way that I hope makes it easier to understand. Instead of focusing on the various brand names, I will list the various types of contact lenses that are available, and group the solutions that go with these types.
SOFT CONTACT LENSES
By far the most popular type of contact lens available, 99% of soft contact lenses are either monthly disposable or daily disposable (“dailies”). The dailies don’t need any solutions which is one of their big advantages they have over the other modes, as they are less likely to be contaminated and also there is no contact with chemicals which can cause an allergic reaction.
Monthly soft contact lenses generally either use a multi-purpose solution (MPS), which acts as a cleaner, rinse and overnight storage/disinfection. Popular MPS brands include Opti-Free®, ACS multi-purpose®, Biotrue® etc.
The other option available for monthly soft lenses is the Hydrogen Peroxide system (AO Sept®, OxySept® and EasySept®). These peroxide cleaning & disinfecting solutiins can also be used with hard lenses (commonly known as RGP lenses), and scleral lenses too.
SCLERAL LENSES
These revolutionary new custom designed lenses are rigid (hard) in nature as opposed to soft lenses, and one main difference is that the solution while inserting the lens, stays trapped between the lens and the cornea throughout the wear. For this reason only preservative free saline can be used when inserting the lens. The most poplular overnight cleaning and disinfecting solution is AO Sept, but the solutions that are used with the RGP (hard) lenses, may also be used.
RGP (hard) LENSES
Like sclerals, these lenses are also hard and custom-designed, but that is where their similarities end. Traditional solutions for RGP lenses was to clean it at night with a so-called daily cleaner, and then store it overnight in a storage solution which acted in a similar way the the MPS solutions used in soft lenses. But the AO Sept peroxide system can also be used here.
HYBRID LENSES
Although I don’t use these lenses, they would be ideally best taken care for with a peroxide based system.