Disinfection, cleaning and care of contact lens is a routine part of the
basic trraining of contact lens fitters, not something they may or may not
have come across at a conference.  A fitter is expected to know the
different materials, the correct methods of care and the methods that will
damage the lens.  Heat is unsuitable for some lenses, alcohol is unsuitable
for others, certain preservatives are not compatible with still others.
Manufacturers must test their lenses with the various care systems and will
recommend or warn against some systems based on the results of testing.

Heating of materials is done by both manufacturers and other researchers.
For most of the higher water materials, heat causes irreversible parameter
changes in the lenses. This is not just a "guess", it is a measured, tested
and known fact.

You would need magnification (>20X), and retroillumination to see visable
deposits.  Deposits bound to the lens require cutting up the lens and
testing with reagents to discover what is bound.  This type of testing of
worn contact lenses has been done extensively by researchers and results
have been published.

It did have adverse effects, quite nasty ones.  I well remember all the
yellowed, distorted soft lenses that resulted from heat disinfecton.  Before
disposables I saw several patients every week with Giant Pappillary
Conjunctivitis (inflammation of eye lid lining) and several cases montlhy of
corneal inflammation,  both due to denatured protein on the lens.

In the bad old days, heat disinfection was used in combination with daily
cleaners, weekly enzymes, in office ultrasound etc etc etc to deal with
deposits with limited success and at great nuisance and expense to the
patient.   Despite all that cleaning, non disposable lenses will have a
bound biofilm after 60 to 90 days of wear.  The difficulty of keeping soft
lenses clean was motivation for the development of disposable lenses.
Instead of the patient spending  $200/year on lens cleaning supplies and
$100/ year on lenses, we switched to having them spend $200 to $250/ yr on
lenses and $60 on multipurpose lens care.

If you are depositing lenses after one week wear, you need a daily
disposable or a less deposit prone biweekly.   Or you need to address any
systemic problems like allergies, acne rosacae, blepharitis that cause you
to have so much protein, lipids etc in your tears.

See your fitter.

Dr Judy