Soft contact lenses are without a doubt the most common type of contact lens that doctors prescribe. Soft lenses are made of soft, flexible plastic. About 87 percent of people who wear contact lenses in the U.S. wear soft lenses.
A Short History
In 1971, Bausch & Lomb made the first soft contact lens that was sold to the public. For a long time, this standard soft daily wear lens was the only kind of soft contact lens that could be bought. This lens was meant to last between 6 and 12 months and needed to be cleaned every day and treated with enzymes once a week.
In 1981, the FDA gave its approval to the first contact lenses that could be worn for a long time or overnight.
The first contact lenses that you had to change often didn't come out until 1991. Most people change their frequently-replaced contacts every 1 to 3 months. The next year, in 1992, disposable contacts that had to be thrown away every two weeks or less came out.
In less than a decade, most eye care professionals switched to using frequent replacement and disposable lenses. About 75% of people who wear soft contact lenses do so with a lens that can be thrown away or changed often. There are daily wear and extended wear options for contacts that need to be changed often or are disposable.
Choices for Soft Contact Lens
As the name suggests, daily wear contacts need to be taken out and cleaned every day. Extended wear contacts, on the other hand, can usually be worn nonstop for up to 7 days (or even longer, since CibaVision's Focus Night & Day contacts have been approved for up to 30 days of nonstop wear).
As the name suggests, disposable contacts are thrown away after a certain amount of time, while non-disposable contacts are cleaned and sanitised before being put back in.
Patients who choose extended wear should know that sleeping in their contacts makes them more likely to get eye infections and other problems. I usually don't recommend wearing contacts for a long time, but I will do so if the patient understands the extra risk and agrees to be seen more often. I will also use a lens material made of silicone hydrogel for these people.
There are different kinds of soft contact lenses.
Soft contact lenses can help with a wide range of vision problems.
I often use a soft toric contact lens on people who have a lot of astigmatism. Over the past few years, Toric contacts have gotten a lot better. Many people who have never been able to wear contacts because of their astigmatism can now do so.
Soft bifocal contacts are a relatively new option for people who need reading glasses or a bifocal prescription. In the same way, monovision is still a good choice for these same people. Monovision is corrected without bifocal contacts. Instead, one contact is used for distance vision (usually the dominant eye) and one contact is used for near vision.
Soft contact lenses can either be clear or have a tint to make them easier to see and handle. Most of the time, the visibility doesn't change the colour of your eyes, but it does help you see the lens while you're handling it. Cosmetic soft contacts are not the same as these lenses.
Since they were first made, cosmetic soft contacts have been very popular. Patients can now use coloured or tinted contacts to change the colour of their eyes, with or without a prescription.
The Wild Eyes contact lenses from CibaVision and the Crazy Lenses contact lenses from CooperVision are fun to wear around Halloween.
Thoughts on the End
Soft contact lenses are popular because they are more comfortable than rigid gas permeable (RGP) contacts. Because of this, they have a much shorter time to adjust. But in some cases, vision may not be as clear with soft contacts as with RGP contacts.
My first choice for a soft contact lens is the O2Optix from CibaVision. This lens can be worn every day for up to two weeks or for an extended period of one week. I will recommend CibaVision's Cibasoft Visitint standard daily wear to patients who don't want disposable lenses, which happens very rarely.
If a patient's contacts are drying out, I will often suggest newer contacts made of materials that keep moisture in. Proclear Compatibles by CooperVision and Acuvue Advance with Hydraclear by Vistakon are two examples of these types of contact lenses (Johnson & Johnson). In fact, Vistakon just released the Acuvue Oasys with Hydraclear, which is aimed mainly at people who have dry eyes from contact lenses.
No matter what your situation is, if you try contacts, you will probably end up wearing soft lenses. Talk to your eye doctor about all the options you might have based on your prescription, age, needs, and goals.
