The wait is finally over. Acuvue moist for astigmatism is being released in Australia on the 20th of June 2011. I have to admit there is a need for a comfortable daily disposable toric contact lenses and up until the release of Acuvue moist for astigmatism there really isn’t one. I’ve always wondered why there was such a poor amount of daily toric brands available for consumers. My speculation is because the amount of money the manufacturer would have to invest by using a good material. Imagine the volume they’d have to make! They would need the standard powers between plano to -6.00 DS. Each with a -0.25 increment, each with cyl powers of -0.75, -1.25, -1.75, -2.25 and each with axis available from 0 to 180 degrees in 10 degree steps. Now times that by the demand for daily toric contact lenses and you are left with a whole heap of volume! But the pioneers of daily disposable contact lenses have done it. And for all you people suffering from astigmatism, you finally have a comfortable contact lens available in toric form. Acuvue Moist for Astigmatism will have all the bells and whistles all their other toric contact lenses enjoy including Advanced Stabilisation Design (ASD) and now the lens will contain the secret ingredient Lacreon! Acuvue 1 Day Moist for Astigmatism will be the most comfortable daily disposable toric contact lens. I can say this because 1 Day Acuvue Moist is still amongst one of the most comfy lenses available today. Well done Johnson & Johnson.

I know we’ve mentioned this countless times before. You must have your eyes regularly examined! We encourage everybody including non-contact lens wearers to have their eyes regularly tested. It’s twice as important to have your eyes examined if you are a regular user of contact lenses because they can induce some changes in your eyes. Your optometrist can also check for other ocular diseases such as glaucoma, macular degeneration and screen for diabetes and hypertensive problems (they are quite clever aren’t they?).

Fitting charges may apply with some optometrists Medicare will only cover contact lens consultations if your prescription is over 5 dioptres spherical equivalent. We recommend having your eyes tested annually if you are wearing contact lenses this is so the optometrist can check your lenses are fitting correctly and you’re wearing the best available lens. You only have 1 set of eyes so don’t take your vision for granted and look after them! Some common issues that occur with contact lenses are: Contact lens related peripheral ulcers (CLPU), Superior arcuate lesions (SEALS), Contact lens intolerances, adenoviral keratitis and bacterial keratitis. Some of these problems are vision threatening and should never be taken lightly. Infections are usually more dangerous especially bacterial infections. Many of these conditions can be caused by poorly fitting or overwearing contact lenses. Remember if you ever have any symptoms of irritation, red eyes, pain, blurry vision or light sensitivity you must remove your contact lenses immediately and see an optometrist or doctor without delay.

Contact lenses give us freedom and flexibility. But we have to remember not to abuse them. We only have one set of eyes which are irreplaceable. Taking them for granted would be silly so look after them! A short and painless trip to the optometrist could avoid a lifetime of blindness.

For some of us, contact lenses have become part of our lives. They’re neat little devices which give us clear sight and let us go on with our daily activities with ease. We can take contact lenses for granted and forget the affects of long term contact lens wear. So how much should we be wearing our contact lenses and what happens if we continue to wear them everyday?

Contact lenses are made of inert material. They’re soft and may contain wetting agents which help lubricate and moisturise our eyes. They are however, still a foreign object to our body. Our body’s immune system finds it hard to recognise such an inert material as a foreign body however given enough time, our clever body may eventually figure out the contact lens is not actually a part of our body (although some of us may think it is!). When this happens you develop intolerance to contact lenses. Symptoms which accompany this are discomfort a short while after insertion of your contact lenses, redness, watery/mucus discharge and light sensitivity. The symptoms usually subside after removal of the lens. Typical people who develop contact lens intolerance are contact lens wearers who wear there lenses seven days per week during all waking hours.

So does that mean you can not wear contact lenses anymore? For some people unfortunate enough, yes. However switching to a different contact lens may reduce contact lens intolerance symptoms. Another method used may be a newer treatment called Orthokeratology which is a specially designed contact lens used to temporarily correct refractive error overnight. This is usually a costly procedure however it has been proven to work extremely well and there are numerous other benefits using this technique.

So often should you be wearing your contact lenses? Four to five days is usually the maximum number of times you should be wearing your contact lenses. The other two to three days you should be wearing your glasses (remember those things?). Healthy contact lens wear should always be used in conjunction with your glasses. Glasses are a necessity for all contact lens wearers. Next time you’re putting on your contact lenses remember and appreciate how much they contribute to our lives and don’t abuse them.

Probably not a question I’d expect from a patient of mine however, it is something useful to know. The modulus of a contact lens is how rigid or stiff it is. Higher modulus contact lenses are more rigid. Higher modulus contact lenses are usually less comfortable then their softer counterparts. So why bother making high modulus contact lenses? Manufacturers will design a lens and take into consideration how rigid and stiff a contact lens will be. Having a high modulus contact lens mean the lens is more robust. This is something that is desired especially if the lens is a monthly or yearly contact lens (how many daily contact lenses have you torn compared to your monthlies?). Also higher modulus lenses may produce clearer vision. This is because the tear lens produced between the contact lens and your eye whilst worn produces a close to perfect optical medium. Some lenses which have a high modulus are: Purevision and Focus Night and day contact lenses. Both these lenses are extended wear lenses and made of silicone hydrogel. Extended wear lenses need to be robust so thay can be worn continuously for up to 30 days.

The disadvantage of having a lens which is too rigid is the discomfort it can induce for some patients. This is particularly true if the patient is sensitive. Having a lower modulus contact lens will increase comfort however the softer material makes the lens weaker and may be torn easily. Daily disposable contact lenses usually have a lower modulus and are generally thinner. Some examples of low modulus daily disposable contact lenses are: Acuvue 1 Day Moist, Focus Dailies, Aquacomfort plus and Proclear 1 day.

Your optometrist will take into consideration which lens to prescribe when you have your contact lenses fitted. People who have excessive discomfort from contact lenses may be prescribed a lower modulus contact lens whereas if the eyes require extra oxygen, a silicone hydrogel contact lens may be the lens of choice.

Do you wear your contact lenses in the office? Do you have a moderate to high short -sighted prescription? Getting tired eyes from using the computer all day? If you answered yes to all 3 questions there is an explanation!

Did you know your eyes actually work harder when looking at a computer screen with your contact lenses compared to glasses? This is because there is nil distance from the contact lenses to your eyes. The distance from your glasses to your eyes is usually between 12mm to 14mm known as the vertex distance. When you view a near object through your glasses, your glasses induce prism. What is prism? Prism can be thought of as the shifting light in one direction. For example, if you look through a pair of glasses with a high prescription, you may notice that objects may appear shifted to one direction appearing more towards the left/right/top/bottom than it really is. This effect is known as prism and is caused whenever there are differences in thickness in an optical product. Your contact lenses have a minimal difference in thickness between the middle of the lens and the edge and because you’re always looking through the optical centre of the contact lens they don’t induce any prism. Your glasses however induce prism. For people who are short-sighted your glasses actually induce prism in favour to viewing a computer screen or something close. Your eyes actually work less!

This is the opposite for people who are long-sighted. Everything is reversed. Your eyes work harder looking through glasses and less through contact lenses. Often wearing contact lenses with near related tasks can be beneficial with contact lenses. This is because glasses with are for long sighted people induce prism not in favour of viewing a computer screen.

These facts are useful to know because having tired eyes at work is a common problem. Consider wearing your glasses on some days if you have a moderate to high prescription short-sighted prescription. And if your long-sighted, consider wearing contact lenses! See if you can feel the difference.

Contact lenses have come a long way and now with more than 100 different types and brands of contact lenses available it’s easy to get confused on which lens to use. More often than not, extended wear contact lenses are often over looked. Amongst the optometry profession there is a stigma in prescribing extended wear contacts to wearers. This is mainly because a majority of infections caused by contact lens wear are, yes you guessed it, extended wear contact lenses. But we shouldn’t forget the benefits of extended wear lenses. They’re durable, come as a monthly wear lens and most importantly, they allow large amounts of oxygen into the eyes. If you wore an extended wear contact lens like a regular monthly contact lens you’d be doing your eyes a huge favour. In fact a lot of optometrists prescribe extended wear contact lenses as normal monthly lenses because we like to promote good eye health!

There are only a handful of extended wear monthly lenses available. Purevision, Night and Day and Biofinity are the leading extended wear lenses. One of the main attractions of extended wear lenses is that they are convenient. You put them in don’t have to worry about them until the end of their life cycle. We recommend taking your lenses out regularly (at least once a week) and cleaning them or wearing your glasses at least once a week in conjunction with your contacts. This gives your eyes time to recover.

Remember you should always follow your optometrists advice on wearing lenses and you only order what you have been prescribed.

Contact lenses have come a long way in history. It’s no surprise they are so popular considering it is estimated that 800 million to 2.3 billion people are affected by refractive error. With the inconvenience of wearing spectacles and modern day stigma of wearing glasses, contact lenses offer people who suffer from myopia, hyperopia and astigmatism clear vision without glasses. The history of contact lenses dates back as far back as the 16th century and the evolution of the contact lens is intriguing.

In 1508 Leonardo Da Vinci was the first person to directly alter corneal power by submerging the eye in a bowl of water. Next came Rene’ Descartes who in 1636 came up with the idea of filling a glass tube with liquid which is placed in contact with the cornea.

In 1801 Thomas Young made an ‘eye-cup’ which had a microscope eyepiece fitted at the base. It was not until 1845 John Herschel thought of an idea where a spherical glass capsule filled with animal jelly and a mould of cornea could be used a contact lens. However the ideas were never tested.

In 1887 the first successfully fitted contact lens was produced by a German ophthalmologist Adolf Gasten Eugen Fick. This was a glass-blown scleral contact lens which made contact with the less sensitive parts of the eye outside the corneal rim. However the scleral contact lens could only be worn for a few hours at a time. Glass-blown Scleral contact lenses remained the only type of lens that could be worn until the 1930’s, PMMA or Perspex became available. Optometrist, William Feinbloom introduced plastic contact lenses in 1936. These were superior in design because they were lighter and convenient and could be worn upto 16 hours. However one the main disadvantages of PMMA contact lenses was that they did not allow any oxygen to permeate the lens. During the 1970’s – 1990’s a range of oxygen permeable contact lenses were created known as RGP or Rigid Gas Permeable lenses.

Soft contact lenses were first made by Czech chemists Otto Wichterle and Drahoslav Lim in 1959. These lenses fast became popular because of their initial comfort upon wearing. In 1999 the silicone hydrogel materials were launched into the market which allow large amounts of oxygen to flow through the lens as well giving wearers the initial comfort a hydrogel contact lens.

Freshlook Illuminate now available only $40 per box of 30.

Freshlook is the world’s leading cosmetic contact lens brand and have released Freshlook Illuminate. Similar to Acuvue 1 Day Define, Freshlook Illuminate contact lenses contain an outer circle print which circumscribes the limbal margin. Using a unique pearlescent pattern, Freshlook Illuminate contact lenses capture and reflect light to give your eyes a beautiful pearlescent lustre. Freshlook Illuminate contact lenses are great for people who want bigger and bolder looking eyes without changing their natural colour. Asian eyes or people with dark coloured eyes suit Freshlook Illuminate contact lenses best because the darker out ring print enhances the size and appearance of the iris.
Available as a daily disposable in non-prescription and for people who are short sighted up to -8.00. We’ve posted a before and after image shot of what the lenses look like.

Each year on October 31 Halloween is a celebrated around the world. It is a day of superstition many believe it is the day the dead can return to earth. With this date just around the corner we’ve released a new range of Crazy contact lenses to complete your costume. The new Crazy contact lenses are monthly disposable contact lenses and are available in 17 different designs. Have the scariest costume amongst your friends and scare them with plain white eyes using plain white contact lenses (also known as ‘White Out’) made famous by Marylin Manson. Or if you are after something similar to twilight and want to look more mysterious use the red wolf lenses. Whichever crazy lens you choose you will definitely make an appearance to remember this Halloween.