A bandage lens, also called a therapeutic lens, is a special soft, very thin, high-water-content contact lens. In 1974 this hydrophilic lens was the first type to be used on an extended-wear basis, but without incorporating a prescription. It has a wide variety of uses before ocular surgery, after ocular surgery, and sometimes instead of surgery. It can also be therapeutic in conditions that do not respond to any other form of treatment.
The lens functions basically as a protective shield and prevents a damaged or ailing cornea from coming into contact with the eyelids and the air. Healing is thereby accelerated and pain is alleviated for as long as the lens is worn, which is on an extended basis (more than twenty-four hours). Read the rest of this entry »
For a long time, tinted soft lenses were not available in this country because of lack of FDA approval. Because the lenses are large and extend beyond the iris onto the white part of the eye, a complete dark tint would also look rather odd. But the transparency of a nontinted lens makes it difficult to see, especially when dropped. The advertising campaign based on the soft lens’s near-perfect resemblance to a drop of water is no exaggeration. No tint also means no glare reduction, but since photosensitivity in soft-lens wearers is relatively rare, this is a minor disadvantage.
However, this ban may no longer be an issue for soft-lens wearers, because in June of 1981 a tinting process for soft lenses was made available. The physician may send any FDA approved soft contact lens to a special laboratory in North Carolina in order to be tinted according to certain specifications. Read the rest of this entry »
Hard-lens wearers point out with a sense of irony that “they don’t call them ‘hard’ for nothing,” and suspect that the real reason their lenses are called hard has as much to do with the difficulty in getting used to them as with their physical rigidity. Initially a hard lens causes everyone some discomfort. (The amount varies, but at no time should you feel real pain. If you do feel sharp pain, either the contact lens has been improperly fitted or there’s something under it.)
Hard lenses feel uncomfortable at first because, although the edges are thin and perfectly smooth, they’re basically inflexible. Every time you blink, the edges of your eyelids bump against the edges of your lenses, making you very aware that the lenses are there. Ultra-thin lenses, with a central thickness of .035 mm, will flex unnoticeably a bit when you blink, and this is mostly beneficial to the tear-pumping action. Read the rest of this entry »
Hard-lens wearers point out with a sense of irony that “they don’t call them ‘hard’ for nothing,” and suspect that the real reason their lenses are called hard has as much to do with the difficulty in getting used to them as with their physical rigidity. Initially a hard lens causes everyone some discomfort. (The amount varies, but at no time should you feel real pain. If you do feel sharp pain, either the contact lens has been improperly fitted or there’s something under it.) Read the rest of this entry »
Vision is a dynamic, changing process that is highly individualized. No one sees exactly the same as you do. No two eyes— even your right eye compared with your left—are quite the same. Nor do they remain the same as you go through life.
Though the eye is quite durable, it’s also an irreplaceable, delicate, sensitive, and highly sophisticated organ. Your eye is directly connected to your brain by the optic nerve and is closely related to other systems of your body. It shouldn’t be considered independently, and before you walk off with a pair of contact lenses you should undergo a complete medical eye examination by an ophthalmologist. Read the rest of this entry »
Contact Lenses Care .
