While some people enjoy making a fashion statement with eyeglasses, others prefer their appearance without them. Contact lenses have been around for more than a hundred years. During that time, many advancements have allowed just about everyone to wear contact lenses. If you were told in the past that you couldn't wear contact lenses, odds are that's not true today. There are more convenient and healthy contact lens options than ever.

If you're new to contact lenses, your first step is to see one of our New York State licensed optometrists. In the United States, contact lenses are a prescription item, just like medicines at a pharmacy. They must be prescribed and properly fitted by an eye care professional. Your eye care professional will evaluate your visual needs, your eye structure, and your tears to help determine the best type of lens for you.

The many types of contact lenses currently available can be grouped in various ways according to:

• - What they're made of
   
• - How long you wear them without removal
   
• - The design of the lens

Contact Lens Materials

Classified by material, there are three types of contact lenses:

• Hard lenses - These lenses are virtually obsolete and rarely used.
   
• Gas Permeable lenses - are made from rigid, waterless plastics and are especially good for high astigmatism.
   
• Soft lenses - are made from gel-like, water-containing plastics, and are most common.

Contact Lens Wearing Time

• Daily wear -must be removed nightly
   
• Extended wear - can be worn overnight, usually for seven days consecutively without removal
   
• Daily disposable - Discard after a single day of wear
   
• Disposable (used for daytime wear) - Discard after two weeks
   
• Planned replacement - Discard monthly or less frequently

Even with proper care, contact lenses (especially soft contacts) should be replaced frequently to prevent the build-up of lens deposits and contamination that increase the risk of eye infections.

Contact Lens Designs

Many lens designs are available to correct various types of vision problems:

• Spherical contact lenses are the typical, rounded design of contact lenses, which can correct myopia (nearsightedness) or hyperopia (farsightedness).
   
• Bifocal contact lenses contain different zones for near and far vision to correct presbyopia.
   
• Toric contact lenses correct for astigmatism, as well as for myopia and hyperopia.

All of these lenses can be custom made for hard-to-fit eyes. Many other additional lens designs are available. Typically these are less common and fabricated for use in special situations, such as correcting for keratoconus.

More Contact Lens Features

Colored Lenses. Many of the types of lenses described above also come in colors that can enhance the natural color of your eyes, for example make your green eyes even greener. Or these lenses can totally change the eye's appearance, as in from brown to blue.

Hybrid Lenses. Some brands of lenses features a Gas Permeable center with a soft outer skirt, providing wearers with both the crisp optics of a rigid lens and the comfort of a larger, soft lens.

Which Contact Lens Is Right for You?

First, your contacts must address the problem that is prompting you to wear lenses in the first place. Your contact lenses must provide good vision by correcting your myopia, hyperopia, astigmatism, or some combination of those vision problems.

Second, the lens must fit your eye. To do that, lenses come in tens of thousands of combinations of diameter and curvature. Of course, not every lens brand comes in every "size."

Third, you may have another medical need that drives the choice of lens. For example, you may need a particular lens if your eyes tend to be dry.

Our optometrists are skilled in evaluating your eye's physiology, and your eyesight, to determine which lens best satisfies the criteria above.

Contact Lens Wear and Care

Caring for your contact lenses - cleaning, disinfecting and storing them is much easier than it used to be.

A few years ago, you would have needed several bottles of cleaning products, and perhaps enzyme tablets, for proper care. Today, most people can use "multipurpose" solutions, meaning that one product both cleans and disinfects, and is used for storage. Some people who are sensitive to the preservatives in multipurpose solutions might need preservative-free systems, such as those containing hydrogen peroxide.

Of course, you can avoid lens care altogether by using daily disposables.

Contact Lens Problems

Trial and error often is involved in finding the perfect lens for you. People react differently to various lens materials and cleaning solutions. Also, the correct "parameters" of your lens can be finalized only after you've successfully worn the lens. This is especially true for more complex fits involving extra parameters, such as with bifocals or toric contact lenses for astigmatism.

If you experience discomfort or poor vision when wearing contact lenses, chances are that an adjustment or change of lens can help. Today, more contact lens choices than ever are available to provide comfort, good vision, and healthy eyes. If you're not feeling good and seeing well, ask our optometrists for help.

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