Contact Lenses
We offer a full spectrum of contact lenses, including disposable soft lenses, toric contact lenses for patients with astigmatism, rigid gas permeable lenses (RGPs), as well as specialty fit contacts for patients with corneal transplants and keratoconus. We fit bifocal contact lenses, SoftPerm contact lenses, and colored contact lenses.
Please call for current pricing on contact lens fitting.
Contact lenses, like eyeglasses or refractive surgery, can correct your nearsightedness, farsightedness, and astigmatism. Of the people who need vision correction in the United States, about one in five wear contact lenses.
Although laser vision correction has gotten more attention, contact lenses provide an effective and safe alternative to surgery, more than ever. What most consumers don’t realize is that the improvement in lens materials and design allow lens wear even for people who were told they weren’t good candidates a few years ago.
When you consider getting into contacts, there will be a number of factors like cost, convenience and, above all, safety that you need to balance with the help of your contact lens fitting professional. Our philosophy is that you should take the time up front to find the right lens style, manufacturer, and material and care solution for you, so that problems down the road are minimized. We don’t bundle the purchase of lenses with the fitting and education roles that our professionals take pride in.
If you're new to contact lenses, your first step is to get a thorough eye exam to make sure your eyes are healthy. In the United States, contact lenses are a prescription item, just like pharmaceuticals. They must be prescribed and properly fitted by a licensed professional who will evaluate your visual needs, your eye structure, and your tears to help determine the best type of lens for you.
The many types of contact lenses currently available can be grouped in various ways according to:
• What they're made of
• How long you wear them without removal
• How often you dispose of them
• The design of the lens
Contact Lens Materials
Classified by material, there are three types of contact lenses:
• Hard lenses are made from PMMA — also known as Plexiglas or Lucite. These lenses are rarely used, due to better alternatives with greater comfort and availability.
• Soft lenses are made from gel-like, water-containing plastics, and are most common. They're a bit larger in size than your iris (the colored part of your eye).
• RGP (rigid gas permeable) lenses are made from rigid, waterless plastics and are especially good for presbyopia and high astigmatism. These lenses are usually about eight millimeters in diameter, which is smaller than your iris.
From the introduction of soft lenses in 1971 until relatively recently, most soft lenses have been made from "hydrogel" plastics. In the past few years, new silicone hydrogel (also called”hybrid”) contact lenses have been introduced. They have become the contact lenses of choice for many eye care practitioners, because they allow more oxygen to pass through the lens to the eye (due to the silicone component), and they are less prone to dehydration.
Contact Lens Wearing Time
Until 1979, everyone who wore contact lenses removed and cleaned them nightly. The introduction of "extended wear" enabled wearers to sleep in their contacts. Now, two types of lenses are classified by wearing time:
• Daily wear — must be removed nightly
• Extended wear — can be worn overnight, usually for seven days consecutively without removal. "Continuous wear" is a type of extended wear lens that can be worn for 30 consecutive nights.
Disposal Intervals for Contact Lenses
One problem with soft contact lenses is that proteins and lipids — which are naturally found in tears — adhere to the surface of the lens, sometimes causing discomfort and providing a home for infection-causing germs.
Lens-cleaning products help. But over time buildup still occurs, necessitating lens replacement. Disposable lenses, first introduced in 1987, address this problem in different ways. (Note that, although "disposable" generally means single-use, this is not always true regarding contact lenses.) Here are the options:
• Daily disposable — replaced every day
• Disposable (used for daytime wear) — replaced every two weeks
• Disposable (used for overnight wear) — replaced every week
• Continuous wear (used for 30-day wear) — replaced monthly
• Planned replacement — replaced monthly or less frequently
Contact Lens Designs
Many lens designs are available to correct various types of vision problems. For example:
• Spherical contact lenses are the typical, rounded design of contact lenses, which can correct myopia (nearsightedness) or hyperopia (farsightedness).
• Bifocal contact lenses contain different zones for near and far vision to correct presbyopia, which is the age-related, decreased ability to obtain a full range of vision. An alternative to bifocal contacts, commonly used, is the monovision plan: one eye, usually the dominant eye, is corrected for distance and one eye is corrected for near. Sounds strange, but 60% of people who try it, like it—and others don’t!
• Orthokeratology lenses are specially designed to reshape the cornea during sleep, providing lens-free daytime wear. Since the cornea is 90% water, the change in its shape induced by the lens is not stable. This method has been around for years but seems to have achieved limited use due to the fluctuation of vision and the availability of refractive surgery.
• Toric contact lenses correct for astigmatism, as well as for myopia and hyperopia
All of these lenses can be custom made for hard-to-fit eyes, for example, in keratoconus; after corneal transplant; after trauma, to replicate the missing iris or provide masking or a more natural appearance to a scarred eye; or in infants.
More Contact Lens Features
Colored Lenses. Many of the types of lenses described above also come in colors that can enhance the natural color of your eyes — that is, make your green eyes even greener, for example. Or these lenses can totally change the eye's appearance, as in from brown to blue.
Special-Effect Lenses. Also called theatrical, novelty, or costume lenses, these take coloration one step further to make you look like a cat, a zombie, or another alter-ego of your choice.
Prosthetic Lenses. Colored contact lenses can also be used for more medically oriented purposes. People with disfigured eyes, as a result of accidents or disease, can use a custom, opaque colored lens to mask the disfigurement and match the appearance of their normal eye.
UV-Inhibiting Lenses. Today, many contacts incorporate an ultraviolet blocker in the lens material, to cut down on UV light that can eventually cause cataracts and other eye problems. You can't see this blocker by looking at the lens. Sunglasses provide an extra measure of UV protection and should still be used even if you are wearing UV protective lenses.
Hybrid Lenses. One brand of lenses features an RGP center with a soft outer skirt, providing wearers with both the crisp optics of a rigid lens and the comfort of a larger, soft lens. These lenses can be especially useful in fitting patients with keratoconus.
Which Contact Lens Is Right for You?
First, your contacts must address the problem that is prompting you to wear lenses in the first place. Your contact lenses must provide good vision by correcting your particular prescription.
Second, the lens must fit your eye. To do that, lenses come in tens of thousands of combinations of diameter and curvature. Your lens professional has a number of lenses in stock, for trial fittings, as well as knowledge of additional lenses to order for special cases. Our fitters also keep up with the newer lens products as they become available.
Third, our lens professionals will advise you regarding suitable lenses should you have a medical need that drives the choice of lens. For example, a particular lens might be recommended if your eyes tend to be dry. Of course, our doctors will treat any conditions that might make your lens wear problematic.
Finally, consider your "wish list" of contact lens features — colors, for example, or overnight wear.
After the right lens for you is determined, you'll be given a contact lens prescription you may fill where you wish. If you have a complicated or specialty lens order, we will offer to order lenses for you. [do we charge for this?] You'll be able to buy a supply of lenses from us or from the many other outlets that sell contact lenses.
Contact Lens Wear and Care
Caring for your contact lenses — cleaning, disinfecting and storing them — is much easier than it used to be. A few years ago, you would have needed several bottles of cleaning products, and perhaps enzyme tablets, for proper care. Today, most people can use "multipurpose" solutions — meaning that one product both cleans and disinfects, and is used for storage. Some people who are sensitive to the preservatives in multipurpose solutions might need preservative-free systems, such as those containing hydrogen peroxide. Of course, you can avoid lens care altogether by using daily disposables.
Recently, there have been reports in the news about serious eye infections related to disinfectants incorporated into “No Rub” care solutions. The current recommendation is for you to remove adherent proteins on the lens with rubbing, plus the disinfecting solution. There seems to be no better alternative for now. Our lens professionals will thoroughly instruct you on the proper care and products for the comfortable and safe wear of your contacts.
Contact Lens Problems
Trial and error sometimes is necessary in finding the perfect lens for you. People react differently to various lens materials and cleaning solutions. Also, the correct "parameters" of your lens — that is, power, diameter, and curvature — can be finalized only after you've successfully worn the lens. This is especially true for more complex fits involving extra parameters, such as with bifocals or toric contact lenses for astigmatism.
If you experience discomfort or poor vision when wearing contact lenses, chances are that an adjustment or change of lens can help. Today, more contact lens choices than ever are available to provide comfort, good vision, and healthy eyes. If your lenses are not comfortable or you are not seeing well, please ask us for help.
