Clear Care - Hydrogen Peroxide Lens Cleaner Part II

Most Clear Care packages contain two bottles of solution. I'd buy this over the single one simply to save money, and save the environment extra lens cases. Click on the picture to purchase online.

How does Clear Care work? Does Clear Care work?

Comparison to other products:

Most lens cleaners use enzymes. Enzymes are proteins that act, in strict scientific terms, act as catalysts (which make reactions go much faster than they otherwise would). Basically, they help a chemical reaction go even faster. In our case, these enzymes help destroy the skin of germs and remove proteins.

Enzymes can drill holes into the skin of germs, just like hydrogen peroxide. They’re just not as strong. As we saw, certain enzyme-based cleaners can allow, or even help, infections to occur. Hydrogen peroxide, however, reacts with virtually anything that’s part of a living organism. That’s why you can never put hydrogen peroxide in your eye – it’ll burn like crazy, because the hydrogen peroxide molecules are reacting with (read: destroying) the cells that make up your eye! Lens cleaner enzymes, on the other hand, have no problem being in your eye (unless you decide to go crazy with it).

So in terms of disinfection, Clear Care has the advantage. What about protein removal?

Protein removal is a bit more complicated. On one hand, certain enzymes are experts at ripping apart proteins in general. On the other, because enzymes are proteins, they can get stuck into the lens surfaces as well. Hydrogen peroxide has the potential to react with proteins, but this is a far cry from ripping them in half. Again, the hydrogen peroxide cleaner mostly works by bubbles.

Click to see the details in hi-res.

So in terms of protein removal, I’d call a tie here.

Risks:

Personal Health

As long as you follow the directions, you’re fine. Don’t use any other hydrogen
peroxide solution (because the first-aid ones contain lots of additives which are bad for your eyes, and are probably the wrong concentration anyway), don’t squirt the solution into your eyes, and wait the full six hours in the included lens case ONLY, otherwise you’ll burn your eyes, and very realistically damage them.

Environmental Imapct

You need to stop using each case every one hundred uses, which I’m not keen on. These little guys could pile up in a landfill somewhere, and as they don’t disclose the metal used on the package, I don’t know if this metal should be recycled in the name of resource conservation.

Price:

Costco has twin packs (2 16-ounce bottles) going for less than 15 dollars, making them very comparable with any brand-name lens cleaner.

Personal Experience:

I was really excited to try it, and the product does in fact give an advantage, but the effects aren’t incredibly huge. Your contact lens life isn’t going to totally change as a result of using this product.

Creative Usages:

I actually started alternating between using enzyme cleaners (in particular, Opti-Free Replenish and ReNu Multi-purpose) and the enzymatic cleaner. If you have dry eyes, and are willing to use both, I would go ahead and use the Clear Care hydrogen peroxide cleaner first (to disinfect and do some preliminary protein removal) and then place the contacts in a small amount of enzymatic lens solution, preferably designed for “retaining moisture” or “people with dry eyes” or whatever, and soak for less than an hour. Because they’ll already be disinfected from the hydrogen peroxide, you can let them sit for only a little bit in the “moisturizing” lens solution.

Recommendation:

I would go ahead and at least try this product out. It works just as well, if not much better, than enzymatic lens cleaners, and it’s comparable (if not cheaper) price. You’ve really got nothing to lose here.

Personally, I’m going to continue purchasing this product. I get good results from this, and the price makes Clear Care definitely worth it.

Most Clear Care packages contain two bottles of solution. I'd buy this over the single one simply to save money, and save the environment extra lens cases. Click on the picture to purchase online.

You might be able to purchase here as well. These vendors are incredibly cheap:

Best Places to Get it:

These places are fairly cheap, unlike the local CVS and other chain drug stores, and often give you free shipping and huge discounts: 

    

                                    Soap.com                                                              Kmart.com