Articles | What are the Different Types of Contact Lenses

There are many benefits of contact lenses that make many people with vision problems choose them over glasses. If you are into sports, contacts are less cumbersome than glasses and there is no risk that they will fall off and break. They also don t fog up in a steam-filled environment, unlike eyeglass lenses. And they provide you with a larger field of vision, unlike glasses, which may deprive you of your peripheral vision. What are the different types of contacts?

Contact lenses are generally divided into hard and soft contact lenses. Hard lenses are also known as rigid gas permeable contacts and are made of a relatively inflexible plastic that corrects vision by adjusting mild defects in the curvature of the eye. Soft contacts, on the other hand, are made of a more flexible material that is made of 80|water, ensuring increased comfort compared with hard lenses. These days, hard lenses are prescribed less frequently compared with soft lenses as developments in technology allow these types of lenses to provide corrections that were previously only available with rigid lenses.

Soft lenses are available as permanent or disposable lenses. Permanent lenses are lenses that you wear for at least a year or until you are provided a new prescription by your eye care provider. Disposable lenses, on the other hand, are lenses that are thrown away after a certain period, which can be as short as a day or as long as a month. There are also extended wear lenses that allow you to wear them continuously for a prescribed period without having to remove them every night, unlike typical contact lenses.

Contacts are also available for those who suffer from astigmatism. Astigmatism is a condition in which the eye is curved in an ovoid shape rather than the proper sphere shape, resulting in the eye having problems focusing. Contact lenses that address astigmatism are known as toric lenses and come with two powers, one that improves the astigmatism and another that addresses other vision problems. In addition, toric lenses are weighed in the top and bottom such that they fall into place correctly on the surface of the eye. Toric contacts generally take more time to fit than regular contacts, as the eye care provider must ensure that they fit correctly to ensure the proper vision correction.

Elderly people can also avail of bifocal or multifocal contacts that act like bifocal spectacles and have areas for close work such as reading as well as for distance vision. These lenses may have a longer acclimation period for the wearer as they have to become accustomed to looking through the proper area of the lenses.

Finally, colored lenses have become increasingly popular among people who want to try out various eye colors. Even those who don t have vision problems wear these contact lenses, although they will still need to have a prescription from an eye care provider before they can purchase a pair as the provider will still have to ensure that the lens fit properly.