Specialized Contact Lenses
Color Contact Lenses
Contacts to enhance or change the color of your eyes are available in daily disposables, biweekly disposables, and traditional lens types. These lenses combine your natural eye color with that of the contact lens color to create a unique new eye color.
Toric Contact Lenses for Astigmatism
Contacts for astigmatism are available in disposables, planned replacement, and traditional lens types. Most people who wear contacts have a mild degree of astigmatism. A small amount of astigmatism that is not corrected typically does not affect vision greatly. During your eye examination, your optometrist can show you an approximation of what your vision might be with and without your astigmatism correction.
Multifocal Contact Lenses for Presbyopia
Contact lens options to correct presbyopia include multifocal lenses and monovision. Multifocal contact lenses feature two prescriptions in one lens: one to correct distance vision and the other to correct near vision. Monovision involves using a contact lens with the reading prescription in one eye and a contact lens with the distance prescription in the other eye.
Soft contact lenses are available as daily wear and extended wear. Daily wear contact lenses are worn during the day and removed at night. Extended wear contact lenses are designed for up to 30 days of continuous wear. These contact lenses allow oxygen to reach your cornea even while you are sleeping.
Corneal Refractive Therapy with Paragon CRT
Corneal Refractive Therapy (CRT) is a non-surgical process designed to minimize and/or eliminate the dependency of eyeglasses and conventional contact lenses. CRT involves the use of a special lens to reshape the cornea surface during sleep and when the lenses are removed in the morning, clear, natural vision can be achieved for all or most of your waking hours.
Contacts
Getting started right with your contact lenses involves going to an eye care professional who provides comprehensive service. Contact lenses are considered prescription devices, just like pharmaceuticals. Therefore, they must be prescribed and properly fitted by an eye care professional.
The contact lens fitting/evaluation process involves a thorough eye examination and an evaluation of your suitability to wear contact lenses. After the assessment of your ocular health and the measurement of your corneal curvature, your optometrist will evaluate the contact lenses on your eyes for proper fit and alignment. Individual instructions for wear and care are further given for first time wearer (insert video from www.acuvue.com/getstarted). Follow up appointments are necessary to insure of a success fit.
Contact lenses are made of many different plastic. They fall into two main categories: soft contact lenses and gas permeable contact lenses (including CRT lenses).
Soft Contact Lenses
Soft contact lenses are available as daily use, disposables, and frequent replacement, and daily wear and extended wear.
Daily DisposablesThese contact lenses are individually packaged for a single day use. A new pair is inserted into the eye every day and discard of at night. The hassle of cleaning is eliminated.
These contact lenses can be used daily and dispose of biweekly, monthly, or quarterly depending on the manufacturer and design specification. They are cleaned, disinfected and stored after each day of wear. Disposing of contact lenses on a regular basis reduces the accumulation of debris and cellular materials that can cause adverse health effects on the eyes. Vision is also consistently better, and replacing lost or torn lenses is fast and inexpensive.
Frequent Replacements
Planned replacement lenses are disposed of monthly, bimonthly, or quarterly. Discarding lenses in this manner is less costly than disposables.
Gas Permeable Contact Lenses
Gas permeable (GP) contact lenses are more rigid and smaller in diameter than soft contact lenses. Advantages of GP lenses include superior optic and oxygen permeability. GP lenses can correct certain vision problems such as high astigmatism more accurately than can soft lenses. GP lenses allow more oxygen to pass through them than do soft lenses, so corneal irritation is less likely. Disadvantages of GP lenses include initial discomfort and adjustment period and possible blurred vision temporarily after lens removal.