Tangible™ Science, LLC, an innovator creating a dramatically better contact lens experience for patients and eye care practices, today announced that a new study presented at the Global Specialty Lens Symposium on Saturday showed that dry eye sufferers wearing scleral lenses coated with Tangible™ Hydra-PEG™ improved across almost every measure when compared to their habitual scleral lenses worn uncoated.

The multicenter, randomized, double-masked study encompassed 19 moderate to severe dry eye patients who wore their habitual scleral lenses and scleral lenses with the same parameters coated with Tangible Hydra-PEG for 30 days each, with a one week wash out period in between.

Statistically significant improvements (p<0.05) were seen with Tangible Hydra-PEG coated lenses in contact lens comfort (CLDEQ-8), dry eye symptoms (OSDI) and dry eye signs (tear film break-up time, ocular surface staining, lid wiper epitheliopathy) and conjunctival papillae.

Patient-reported improvements in comfortable lens wearing time and frequency of foggy vision (p<0.002 in both cases) were greater when wearing the coated lenses. Patients wearing coated lenses experienced foggy vision at almost half the rate they did when the lenses were uncoated.

“Dry eye patients can struggle with lens discomfort and poor quality vision with scleral lenses. We wanted to examine a potential solution for these frustrations,” said Dr. Chandra Mickles of Nova Southeastern University College of Optometry, a principal investigator of the multicenter study. “We found that the Tangible Hydra-PEG coating is an effective technology that can provide superior comfort, improved dry eye symptoms, and reduced subjective fogging than untreated scleral lenses. This coating has the potential to improve outcomes for dry eye patients.”

Tangible Hydra-PEG is a unique polymer coating permanently bonded to custom contact lenses that minimizes deposits and lens fogging, and improves wettability, lens surface water retention, lubricity and patient comfort. As a result, eye care practices can benefit from fewer refits, higher patient satisfaction and more available staff time.

The company is introducing companion products this year – Tangible™ Clean and Tangible™ Boost – designed to protect coated lenses and restore the coating and its benefits, enabling an improved lens wearing experience for the prescribed life of custom contact lenses.

The data was presented on Saturday, January 26 by Dr. Mickles in the General Session at the GSLS symposium.

ABOUT TANGIBLE SCIENCE

Tangible Science strives to dramatically improve the contact lens experience. By developing a family of groundbreaking products for custom contact lenses, as well as a line of hydrogel and silicone hydrogel disposable lenses, the company intends to make the lens wearing experience better for patients and the lens fitting experience easier for eye care providers.