Contact Lenses

Treatment Overview

Contact lenses are small plastic or silicone discs shaped to correct refractive errors.

After your doctor tests your vision, you will get a prescription for the lens you need. Your prescription may change over time.

Contacts are placed directly on the eye, where they float on a film of tears in front of the cornea. Correct design and fitting of the lenses are essential for comfort, safety, and accurate correction.

Improvements in contact lenses have made them more comfortable and easier to wear. Millions of people wear contact lenses, and most wear soft lenses. For these people, contact lenses offer a relatively safe and effective way of correcting vision problems.

Several types of hard and soft contact lenses are available.

What To Expect

With most hard contact lenses, there will be a 2- to 4-week break-in period. During this time, you wear the lenses for longer periods of time each day. Soft contact lenses usually take less time to get used to.

How you care for your contact lenses depends on the type of lens you have. It is important to follow directions for lens care carefully to help prevent sore or infected eyes. If you have a hard time following the cleaning steps, tell your eye doctor. You may be able to simplify the cleaning steps. Or you may want to switch to disposable lenses that you wear for one day, then throw away.

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Why It Is Done

Many people choose to wear contacts because of the convenience. Or they may prefer the way they look without eyeglasses. Some people wear contacts because they are recommended by the eye doctor.

Contact lenses can correct nearsightedness (myopia), farsightedness (hyperopia), astigmatism, and presbyopia. Lenses that correct astigmatism are called toric lenses.

Contact lenses may be used by people who have had cataract surgery and couldn't have an artificial lens implanted in the eye. They may also be used to treat eye diseases, such as keratoconus or damage to the cornea caused by injury or infection.

Multifocal contact lenses have been developed for people who have both nearsightedness and presbyopia. Multifocal lenses provide correction for both near and distance vision on each lens.

If multifocal contact lenses will not work for you, your doctor may recommend monovision. With monovision, you wear a contact lens that corrects for near vision in one eye and a lens that corrects for distance vision in the other eye.

In other cases, your doctor may recommend using reading glasses in combination with contact lenses that correct for distance vision.

Most people can wear contact lenses.

Contact lenses may not be a good choice if you:

• Are not able or are not willing to care for the lenses properly.
• Would have a hard time handling the lenses (for example, if you have severe arthritis in your hands or another problem that would make it hard for you to insert, remove, and clean the lenses).
• Have certain medical conditions such as uncontrolled diabetes or hyperthyroidism. Allergies may also make it difficult to wear contacts.
• Have dry eyes or problems with the cornea. People who have Sjögren's syndrome (a condition that causes a lack of tears and dry eyes) often are not able to wear contacts. People who have chronic or recurrent infections or sores on the cornea cannot wear contact lenses.
• Have a job that exposes you to particles, chemical fumes, or other vapors that may be absorbed by or stick to the lenses (such as dust and dirt, paint, spray chemicals, or hair spray).

Infants and children

Infants and young children usually do not wear contact lenses, except to treat some medical conditions. Many older children and teenagers wear contacts.

How Well It Works

Contact lenses work well for most people. But some types of contacts may work better for you than other types. For example:

• Gas-permeable lenses may give you the sharpest vision, but soft contact lenses are usually more comfortable. Most people are okay with either type.
• If you have astigmatism, rigid gas-permeable lenses may work best.
• If your eyes are not able to focus on near objects (presbyopia), you may choose multifocal contact lenses. But you may need to use reading glasses some of the time.

Risks

Minor side effects of contact lenses are common. But the risk of infection or other problems that can affect your vision is low.

Problems sometimes caused by wearing contact lenses include:

• Dry eyes.
• Problems with the cornea. These include swelling and hazy vision caused by decreased oxygen to the cornea (hypoxia), corneal scratches and scrapes, changes in the cornea's shape, and infection of the cornea.
• Allergic reactions to contact lens solution.
• Eye inflammation.
• Eyelid inflammation. Inflammatory bumps can form under the eyelid, making it uncomfortable to wear contacts.

Some problems are more common with certain types of lenses. You may be able to avoid some problems by cleaning your lenses more often, not wearing your lenses overnight, or changing the type of lenses you wear.

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