Contact Lenses Care

It is estimated that there are 8.5 million people in the United States who have some degree of color blindness. This is the common name given to the inability to distinguish colors and shades; some people have trouble with only a few colors, others see no colors at all. This inherited disorder affects mostly males: 8 percent of the male population is red-green color deficient, as compared with only one half of 1 percent of the female population.

Eye practitioners can test you if you suspect you are color deficient. Telltale signs include a lack of interest in colors, choosing color combinations that don’t appeal to most people, a preference toward blues and yellows and indifference toward reds and greens, unawareness of fall foliage, difficulty in seeing veins and freckles, and the preference of black-andwhite TV over color.

In the past there was nothing available to improve color blindness. But several years ago Dr. Harry Zeltzer developed a special, red-tinted contact lens that improves the color perception of those who suffer the most common type of color blindness (red-green). (A red-tinted lens in eyeglasses doesn’t work because the lens is too far away from the eye.) The X-Chrom lens has been a godsend to people whose jobs and interests require the ability to identify colors. Telephone repairmen, hunters, drivers, home handymen, painters, cosmeticians, printers, textile workers, chemists, photographers, artists, decorators, and anyone who selects clothes (even if it’s just their own)—all can benefit from this type of lens. It has even helped color-deficient children who were wrongly labeled as learning deficient.

The X-Chrom lens is deep red in color. Only one tinted lens is prescribed, usually for the nondominant eye. It works by changing the relative intensities of red and green objects. The nondominant (corrected) eye supplies the brain with information about colors that are normally hard for it to identify; the dominant (uncorrected) eye continues to supply the colors the eye is capable of seeing correctly. As if by magic the wearer sees colors he never even knew existed. At first colors may seem to glow or be more vibrant, and objects that used to blend into the background may seem to jump out. But the eye and brain soon adjust to the unfamiliar information: the newly perceived colors are identified and learned.

If necessary the X-Chrom lens can be manufactured to incorporate a prescription to correct refractive errors. In that case the wearer keeps his regular clear lens in the dominant eye and the X-Chrom corrective lens in the other. Usually a third, clear contact lens incorporating the necessary prescription is kept on hand for use in the nondominant eye when the X-Chrom is not worn. Those who do not wish to wear a contact lens in both eyes can wear glasses over the X-Chrom lens.

The fitting, adjustment period, wearing, care, and handling of the lens are the same as for conventional hard lenses, but the cost is higher. The X-Chrom may be worn during both daytime and nighttime, but many elect to remove the lens at night because of the reduced illumination that will be exaggerated with this lens. Some wearers experience a slight reduction in visual acuity, or their depth perception is affected because the two eyes receive unequal amounts of illumination. Cosmetically the red color of the X-Chrom lens is very obvious. All these disadvantages must be weighed against enhanced color perception. The color-blind patient, therefore, has to be well motivated in order to wear this lens.

Clearly the X-Chrom offers no guarantees and is not for every color-deficient patient. In the words of its developer it’s “an aid, not a cure.” But for most color-blind people it means improved color perception and opens up new vistas in everyday pleasures and work.

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