Optical Services

OPTICALS SERVICES

CONTACT LENSES

Contact lenses, like eyeglasses or irreversible LASIK surgery can correct your near-sightedness, far-sightedness & astigmatism. You can also use coloured or customized versions as fashion statements. They provide full field of unobstructed vision- great if you are into sports- as well as other functional advantages with which spectacles can’t compete.

The advantages of Contact Lenses versus Spectacles:

• Successful contact-lens wear requires a “partnership” between the Contact Lens Specialist and you, the wearer.
• The practioner must first decide if your eyes are healthy enough to wear contact lenses. If so, the practioner fits the correct lenses for your eyes and your needs and teaches you how to use and care for them.
• You must follow the instructions, care for, and wear the lenses correctly, and return as required for routine and emergency care.

TYPES OF CONTACT LENSES

Soft lenses and rigid gas permeable (RGP) lenses are the main lenses available. Each has specific indications as well as a specific wear and care regimen. The older hard (PMMA) lenses are rarely used today and have risks similar to RGP lenses. There are larger scleral lenses available for special eye conditions.

Contact lenses are mainly used to avoid having to wear glasses in conditions such as nearsightedness, farsightedness, and astigmatism or to avoid the use of bifocals (multifocal lenses).

They may also be used to treat other conditions. Keratoconus is a condition in which the surface of the eye has a very irregular shape (astigmatism). When glasses no longer provide adequate vision, contact lenses are used.

• Some lenses are meant for daily wear. With daily wear soft lenses, you wear the lenses for one day and then discard them. This allows one to dispense with solutions, cleaning, and disinfection of the lenses. It allows intermittent wear such as weekend or occasional wear, as desired. Most soft lenses and some RGP lenses are worn for a day and then removed, cleaned, and disinfected each night. Soft lenses are usually replaced on a regular basis, which varies from one week to one month to three months to one year. RGP lenses may last for years with regular care.
• Extended wear lenses, usually soft, are worn overnight for one week and then replaced every one to two weeks. Trying to extend the wear of lenses beyond the recommended replacement schedule is a false economy and an invitation to potential disaster.
• Overnight wear decreases the amount of oxygen available to the eye and increases the (rare) chance of infection by fourfold. Because of this, some practitioners do not recommend extended wear of contact lenses. Newer lenses may be safer.