Contact Lenses Care

Contact lenses that you can wear while you sleep—this earth- shattering concept arouses no less interest and excitement than the Pill did when it was first introduced. This is the glamour lens that everybody wants to know about and have, and is probably the lens of the future. Like the Pill, which forever altered our sexual standards, the extended-wear contact lens promises to usher in a new era and change our attitudes toward visual correction. But the similarity doesn’t end there: Though this lens seems to be the answer to every contact lens wearer’s prayers, it has not yet been perfected. It is definitely not for everyone, and some practitioners are reluctant to prescribe it at all.

Canada, Australia, and Europe enjoyed several types of extended-wear contact lenses several years before we did. However, there is no Food and Drug Administration in those parts of the world, and because of this lack of strict monitoring control and quality, these lenses have posed a health problem, especially as related to corneal complications. Read the rest of this entry »

Compared with conventional soft lenses, the extended-wear lenses offer almost all the same liabilities , as well as a few more. They are the most expensive contact lenses (about six hundred dollars), in part because of the cost of the special lenses but mainly because of the extensive professional follow-up examinations required.

The visual acuity provided by the extended-wear lenses is similar to that of conventional daily-wear soft lenses. So far these lenses are available only for those who are nearsighted and for those who have undergone cataract extraction. They cannot correct significant amounts of astigmatism. However, research is going on in this field. Read the rest of this entry »