A Beginners Guide For Choosing The Best Contact Lenses!

Are you tired of frames that often hinder you being active and also come in your way of being active, contact lenses are what you need!  ContactLenses are a lightweight therapeutic or cosmetic device that is placed at the corner of the eye offering a 360-degree vision.

However, people often get confused when purchasing the right contact lenses. The lenses are of various different types and often vary according to the design, wear time, replacement schedule and construction material.

The first thing you should look when choosing the right lens is the type of lens. Your most basic choice would be soft or hard lenses; with soft, being the common choice of most lease wearers.

The Evolution of contact lens:

If you think that contact lenses are modern inventions, you are wrong! The concept came in the limelight by Leonardo Da Vinci, around 500 years ago.  He depicted his innovations through diagrams showing how one could use the refractive power of the eyes to change the lens’s contact with water.

Then, inventors came with the idea of putting glasses on the eyes to change the way the pupil focuses. This idea would have gained much attention if they had materials and other manufacturing methods that we use today.

Years ago, a German scientist came up with the first contact lenses using a glass, which they named as scleral lenses.  These lenses don’t sit on the cornea; the dome-like clear structure covers the entire white part (sclera) of the eye.

Classification Of Contact Lenses:

Rigid Lens:

The first plastic lens was made from the polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) material and cover only the cornea part. Since the lens was very small, it appeared to be comfortable and easy-to-wear.  However, the only drawback with this was that it restricts the oxygen to pass through it.

Later, the rigid Contact Lens (gas permeable) was designed, which was much healthier and allow more flow and oxygen transmission. Rigid contacts provide the best vision correction and are ideal for the people suffering from astigmatism and other irregular shaped eyes.

Soft Contact Lenses:

These contacts are made from a plastic material called HEMA (hydroxyethyl methacrylate), that you can easily drape over the cornea of the eye. Since the plastic conformed to the shape of the eye, these lenses offer increased initial comfort, and its use doesn’t deform the cornea.

Disposable ContactLenses:

Disposable lenses are more convenient, and are designed to wear for only one day. These are low maintenance form of lenses, however, changing them regularly can be more expensive.  Soft disposable lenses are ideal for people who suffer severe eye allergies.

Silicon ContactLenses:

Silicon Contact lenses are the advanced version of soft lenses, which allow more oxygen to pass through it. These lenses don’t wet out and become soft and pliable if soaked in the water.

Scleral Contact Lenses:

Scleral Contacts are quite comfortable than other small lenses. In this, the cornea is fitted with thousands of nerve fibers, making it sensitive to the environment. These Contact lenses sit on the conjunctiva and sclera; they provide less discomfort around the eyes. Besides, these lenses can produce clearer vision.

Once you know which type of lens you want, have a look at some other categories to help you decide the type of contact lens you can have:

Daily Wear Contact Lens:

These lenses are usually less expensive and have to be removed and disinfected every day. However, the replacement time can vary according to the type of lens.

Extended wear lenses: You can wear them regularly without removing them. However, they need to be disinfected once a week.

Toric Lenses:

These lenses are used to correct astigmatism, which is a condition in which vision gets blurred because of the irregular shape of the cornea.

Opaque Or Colored Lenses:

Colored lenses can change the color of your eyes, making it more appealing and beautiful. You can use custom-tinted lenses to create the natural appearance and disguise injuries. These lenses are also used by professional athletes to minimize the glare, enhance contrast sensitivity and heighten the depth perception.

Contact LensesRisks:

As per the study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, over 99% of people are not following the rules for wearing contact lenses. This makes the eyes more prone to diseases. However, some important things you can do to maintain the contact lens health is following the below steps:

• Don’t sleep with lenses, as it can make your eyes more vulnerable to the infections.
• Topping off the disinfecting solution: Topping off the solution on the lenses will not minimize the growth of viruses and bacteria. In fact, it will increase the risk by introducing the new pathogens to the solution.
• Don’t swim, shower and riser with the ContactlensesDoing this will give rise to the Acanthamoeba (an amoeba of water) that can result in the large scar on the cornea.

Dailies, soft or hard which one is yourContact lens? Read-on the above article to pick your ideal Contactlenses!