CONTACT LENS OPTIONS
This practice has a long history of fitting contact lenses since they were first introduced in the 1950s. Our doctors are continually invited to participate in industry and FDA monitored research studies.
- Single Use Lenses
- Disposable Contact Lenses
- Silicon Hydrogel Lenses
- Bifocal Contact Lenses
- Astigmatism
- Hybrid Lenses
- Contact Lenses for Keratoconus
- Orthokeratology
- Rigid Gas Permeable Lenses
- Contact Lens Menu
A single use lens is the safest, cleanest, most convenient contact lens modality available and is often chosen as an alternative to laser eye surgery. You treat them like a Kleenex… you use them once and then throw them away. These are the most cost-effective choice for the occasional contact lens wearer who only wants a contact lens for “sports and social life.”
Our office predicts that in the future almost all soft contact lenses will be single use lenses You can try to clean your lenses perfectly buy you can never get your lenses perfectly clean. ©
Two week and one month disposable contact lenses are now the mainstay of modern contact lens practice as many manufacturers have reduced or stopped producing the traditional lenses which lasted up to 18 months. Both bifocal and astigmatism lenses are available in a disposable lens modality.
Soft contact lenses have been available since the 1970’s. Advancements in the 1980’s gave us high water and extended wear contact lenses. The 1990’s was an era of two week and other lens modalities.
The human eye requires 87 unites of oxygen to breath at a “normal” level. Almost all existing daily-wear and disposable soft lenses use a plastic that delivers about 42 units of oxygen to an eye. The newest lens materials available since the summer of 1999 deliver up to 175 units of oxygen to an eye.
When you wear a lens that delivers 175 units of oxygen your eyes are healthier, whiter and better able to support a contact lens. The delivery of more than 4 times the oxygen of traditional lens materials and this allows some people to safely wear lenses for up to 30 continuous days.
These lenses allow you to function with near, far and intermediate vision without glasses. Early bifocal contact lens designs yielded about a 60% success record – that is, about 6 out of 10 patients who tried a bifocal soft lens were satisfied with their performance. We called this 20/Happy. The newer lens designs since 1999 have given us more choices and about a 90% success rate. Bifocal lenses are available in gas permeable rigid, monthly disposable soft and the new hybrid designs.
Almost anyone with astigmatism can now wear a disposable contact lens.
These lenses have a gas permeable center and a soft contact lens skirt. You get the optics of a hard lens and the comfort of a soft lens. These lenses come in single vision and bifocal designs and are sometimes an excellent alternative for keratoconus patients who can not tolerate a hard or rigid gas permeable lens. Link to www.synergeyes.com
Contact Lenses for Keratoconus
These custom lenses are comfortable and give vision to those who might otherwise be faced with having a corneal transplant to maintain their vision. Corneal transplant surgery is the last resort if these lenses do not give people with keratoconus functional vision.
Imagine a contact lens that you put on at bedtime, take off when you wake up, and allows you to see for the rest the day without wearing glasses or contact lenses. This modality is often an alternative to laser eye surgery. Please see our page on Orthokeratology and Link to www.beretainer.com for more information.
The fitting of oxygen permeable rigid lenses is a lost art as less than 5% of contact lens patients where this modality. RGP lenses breathe better, stay cleaner, last longer, provide crisper vision, reduced the rate of myopic progression and are a lower cost than most soft contact lenses. So why then, do so few people wear these lenses?
Caution: Do not learn about contact lenses from mass marketing. Advertisers often make promises that may not apply to you - no one lens design works on all people. If you have questions you should consult an optometrist to find out which lens design can safely provide you with “clear comfortable vision.”™