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Extended wear contact lenses
Always considered to be the ‘holy grail’ in contact lens wear. Contact lens manufacturers have always strived to provide a lens that you could just put in the eye and leave in for a month.
This was tried initially in the 70’s and 80’s with limited success. The lack of success was due to poor/ insufficient performance from the lenses at that time.
Challenges with overnight wear
Contact lens by their moist water containing nature, need liquid provided by the tears to remain hydrated upon the eye. If the lens drys out during lens wear, discomfort will be experienced and a greater risk of infection will be created.
This ultimately, will give the wearer very dry eyes at waking, as well as possibly red irritated eyes.
Additionally, all soft contact lenses have to allow the eye to breath. Leaving a lens in the eye all month, as well as the challenges to the cornea with the ‘closed eye’ sleeping state, previously meant that soft lenses from the 70’s, 80’s and early 90’s could not match up to these demands
“So, what’s new?”
In 1998,CIBA Vision and Bausch & Lomb both made new soft lenses to address both of the major issues preventing successful extended wear. These lenses, as well as all others which have followed, allow comfortable overnight wear combined with incredible oxygen delivery.
The result (in most cases) is the convenience of a lens you don’t have to touch for a whole month (great for say: mechanics with oily hands; kids or people with dexterity problems) No cleaning is needed. Just natural vision with no hassle. The cornea can breath through the lenses- as if -there’s no lens in the eye at all!
At RC Arnold optometrists, we have been successfully supplying this modality of lens wear for many years, and with great success.
They come in prescriptions for short and long sight, astigmatic prescription and even multifocal form.
Why not ask for a trial?
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