EyeWear

Contact Lens for every eye

Just like the saying ‘’there is a shoe for every foot’’, so also there is a suitable Contact lens for every eye.

If you were asked, you would probably say all eyes are the same except for colour and maybe the size of the eyeball. But the difference is more than that. Everybody doesn’t see the same way with their ordinary eye. The way light passes through a person’s eye to get to the retina (back of the eye) is different for some people and the same for others. This is how refractive errors come about, so we have Myopia (Nearsightedness), Hyperopia (Farsightedness), and Astigmatism (Far & Near problems).

Yet for all the different conditions of the eye, including eyes with no defects, there is a Contact lens that is just suitable for it.

How does Contact Lens work?

If you have carefully observed different prescribed spectacle lenses, especially high power lenses, you would notice the lens takes a particular curvature which makes us differentiate lenses into Convex and Concave lenses. Manipulating this curvature is what makes light bend and arrive at different points. These are also present in your Contacts Lens though it is so small. This is how Contacts work to get you the same vision as your spectacle or even better. You would think that all Contacts have the same shape, but, No. They don’t. They have curvatures patterned to solve various levels of refractive errors. It also has a curvature just suit for an eye with no defects too.

Someone may say “I don’t have any problem with my sight and I like to wear Contacts.”

Okay. Now for us to understand how every eye can wear a Contact, we will categorise Contact Lenses into 2 groups.

 

  1. Contact Lens that has NO EFFECT on sight.

Under this we have:

Contacts Lens for Fashion. If this is your interest area, there are a lot of shades of Contact lens available to fit your style.

Contact Lens as Customs for special effect. For the movie industry, a stage drama, Halloween, there are patterns available for your artistic creativity.

Contact Lens as Bandage for some dry eye cases or for drug delivery – providing longer availability of the drug to the eye. This is basically for therapeutic use.

Contact Lens as Prosthetics to serve as a mask for the already compromised cornea. For those who have damaged cornea and the appearance of it affects their self-esteem. It is a masking Contact lens that would cover up the scarred cornea and make it look like a normal eye.

  1. Contact Lenses that HAVE EFFECT on sight.

These Contacts help the wearer to see well than their ordinary eyes. Under this category, we have designs such as:

Spherical Contact Lens. This CL design can be used to provide better vision for refractive errors such as Myopia, and Hyperopia.

Bifocal. This design of Contacts has two sections. One for seeing distance and the second section on the lower part of the lens that helps for reading or near work. We can also have a special design that carries an Astigmatic correction for distance vision and a reading segment too.

Toric Contact Lens. This class of Contact Lens is for correcting Astigmatism.

Orthokeratology. This type of Contacts is designed to reshape the cornea while you sleep to achieve lens-free eyes in the daytime.

These Contact lenses mentioned above can also come with colour patterns on them, making them still fashionable.

So whether you need contact lens just for fashion, or just for sight, or for both, it’s certainly available.

 

Special Contact Lenses

Because different eye demands may vary and could be unique to an individual, some Contacts are specially made.

Custom Contact Lens. Contact lenses can be custom-made to satisfy a particular eye demand or need. Remember to talk to your eye doctor for your specific need.

UV-inhibiting Contact Lens. The consequences of UV rays to the eyes have been discussed previously. Some of which are Cataract, Floaters etc. Considering this, your Contacts can have UV blocker incorporated during its making. The best recommendation is a spectacle UV blocker as it provides complete eye protection.

Scleral Lens

Sclera Contact Lenses. The sclera lens is so named because the Contacts do not stop at the cornea boundary; it extends beyond on to the Sclera (the white part of the eye). It is mostly used for Keratoconus (a condition of uncontrolled budging of the cornea) cases.

 

You may want to ask, “Which Contact Lens will be good for me?”

For it to be good for you, it should satisfy these requirements.

  1. The Contact Lens should solve any challenge with your sight. Whether myopia, hyperopia, or astigmatism. Or for those requiring Contacts just for fashion or custom, it should retain the clarity of your sight.
  2. It should be comfortable for you when fitted. Sensitivity to any component of the Contacts must be checked. Hence, your Eye Doctor puts you through an observatory period.
  3. Your choice of wearing time is also put into consideration in determining what will be okay for you. Whether daily or extended wear.
  4. Your Colour choice and pattern is also noted.

All these put together will bring about what is right for you.

With all the aforementioned, you can now add some creativity to the way you look.

As you Keep making healthy choices.

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Dr. Trust Egharevba
Dr. Trust Egharevba is an Optometrist and Life Coach. His passion is to see healthy people live life to the fullest. He enjoys sharing knowledge, making people happy and being happy as well.

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2 Comments

  1. Awesome.. Life made easy. I really love that bifocal and astigmatism contact lens, because it is hardly done. Most times we just prescribe monovision where one eye is used for dx and the other eye for near, which can really affect patient’s depth perception . And in terms of astigmatism, we just use spherical equivalent to get the contact lens prescription in sphere only… I have always been wondering if the patient were really OK with the prescription.
    I would love to learn more about the astigmatism and bifocal contact lens…
    Nice one Dr Trust

    1. Thanks for the kind words, Dr. Faith Fecky. I’m glad you studied through the article. We will keep updating you on the topic.

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