yulius hermanto
A Brief about Contact Lens
Introduction
Contact Lens is a thin, clear disks of plastic that floats on the surface of the eye. It usually as a corrective, cosmetic, or therapeutic lens that placed on the cornea of the eye.
Millions of people around the world wear contact lenses, more than 24 million in the United States alone. Depending on your lifestyle, your motivation and the health of your eyes, contact lenses may provide a safe and effective alternative to eyeglasses when used with proper care and maintenance.
Refractive anomaly is quite common in population, maybe is the most common factor that causes blurred vision. Most of refractive anomaly requires correction using glasses in order to achieve a better vision. Most the contact lenses users have a problem in refraction thus they use contact lens for therapeutic or correction reasons.
Contact lenses has become popular or trends in lifestyle since it give a better cosmetically compare to eye glasses. But only little of users know about its beneficience and side-effects.
In this article, i'm gonna discuss about the benefits of contact lenses and its complications.
Kinds of Contact Lenses
There are two general types of lenses: hard and soft.
The hard lenses most commonly used today are rigid gas-permeable, or RGP. They are made of plastics and other materials such as silicone or fluoropolymers. Hard lenses hold their shape, yet allow the free flow of oxygen through the lenses to the cornea.
RGP lenses may be the best choice when the cornea has enough astigmatism (is shaped like an egg instead of an orange) that a soft lens will not provide sharp vision. They may also be preferable when a person has allergies or tends to form protein deposits on his or her contacts.
Soft lenses are the choice of most contact lens wearers. These lenses are comfortable and come in many options for how you wear them. Soft lenses nowadays are made from substances with high water content, thus permit oxygen diffusion through it easily. Soft-lenses could cause allergic reaction for those who are sensitive with the lens components.
Daily wear lenses are the least expensive, are removed nightly and are replaced on an individualized schedule. They should not be used as an extended-wear lens.
Extended wear lenses are worn overnight but are removed at least weekly for thorough cleaning and disinfection. They are being recommended less frequently, since there is a greater risk of corneal infection with any overnight wear of contact lenses.
Disposable wear lenses are more expensive, but convenient. They are removed nightly and replaced on a daily, weekly or monthly basis. Disposable lenses are sometimes recommended for people with allergies and for those who tend to form deposits on their lenses.
Colored contact lenses can change the appearance of your eye color.
Toric soft contact lenses can correct astigmatism, although sometimes not as well as RGP lenses. They usually cost more than other contact lenses.
Contact Lenses from Clinical View
Visual Fields
Contact lenses is placed closely to the pupil, and doesn't need a frame in usage, thus factors give a better visual field correction than eye glasses. Contact lenses also only cause little marginal visual field distortion compare to eye glasses.
Accomodation
Compare to eye glasses, contact lenses increased the needs of accomodation in nearsightness and decrease the needs of accomodation in farsightnes compare with eye glasses.
Fitting Process
In using contact lenses whether hard or soft-lens, there is a need of fitting process, that is measuring the suitable contact lenses for the wearer. Fitting process in soft-lenses is shorter than hard-lenses because the material is soft thus can adapted to cornea shape easily.
Contact Lenses Complications
The complication of wearing contact lenses can be classified into: eyes and lenses.
Eyes or ocular complications are related to multifactorial such as allergic to lenses material, mechanical trauma, and disturbing corneal protection and nutrition since corneal is avascular tissue, thus nutrition is being supply by surrounding environment, and tear is one of the nutrition for the cornea.
Contact lenses, disturb nutritional supply for the cornea thus, will cause barrier loses then lead to infection of cornea.
Thus most of contact lenses wearers are suggested to remove their lenses during night or bedtime, to decrease the risk of corneal infection.
Any lens that is removed from the eye needs to be cleaned and disinfected before it is reinserted. The best type of cleansing system is depending on the type of lens, any allergies might have and whether or not eye tends to form protein deposits.
Care of contact lenses includes cleaning their case, since it is a potential source of infection. The case should be rinsed with contact lens solution and allowed to dry.
Homemade saline (salt water) solutions have been linked to serious corneal infections and should not be used.
The complication for the lenses is the occurance of deposits on the lenses such as iron, protein, fungi, etc. Thus make the lenses not clear and causing blurred image, discomfort also a predisposition factor for infection.
Therapeutic Contact Lenses
The usage of contact lenses for therapeutic purposes usually done for cornea abnormality. One of the indication is cornea ulceration. In cornea ulceration, there is an epithelial damaged. The epithelial regeneration or repair often not sufficient enough since it always disturb by blink mechanism, thus prolonged healing process.
Therapeutic contact lenses could be used in several conditions for:
1. Protective agents from epithelial abrasions by blink mechanism.
2. Protective agents for epithelial regeneration.
3. Protective agents against irritation at cornea nerve-endings.
Take Home Message
The health of your eye surface and tear film are very important to your comfort and the clarity of your vision when you are wearing contacts.
Choose an eye care professional who is experienced with contact lenses and with whom you can discuss your needs and expectations. Your eye care professional should diagnose and treat any eye problems that may prevent healthy lens wear and be able to correct problems that arise during lens wear.
You should examine your own motivation for wanting contacts and your commitment to the care and recommended replacement of contacts in order to maintain healthy eyes.
Contact Lens is a thin, clear disks of plastic that floats on the surface of the eye. It usually as a corrective, cosmetic, or therapeutic lens that placed on the cornea of the eye.
Millions of people around the world wear contact lenses, more than 24 million in the United States alone. Depending on your lifestyle, your motivation and the health of your eyes, contact lenses may provide a safe and effective alternative to eyeglasses when used with proper care and maintenance.
Refractive anomaly is quite common in population, maybe is the most common factor that causes blurred vision. Most of refractive anomaly requires correction using glasses in order to achieve a better vision. Most the contact lenses users have a problem in refraction thus they use contact lens for therapeutic or correction reasons.
Contact lenses has become popular or trends in lifestyle since it give a better cosmetically compare to eye glasses. But only little of users know about its beneficience and side-effects.
In this article, i'm gonna discuss about the benefits of contact lenses and its complications.
Wearing a Contact Lenses
Kinds of Contact Lenses
There are two general types of lenses: hard and soft.
The hard lenses most commonly used today are rigid gas-permeable, or RGP. They are made of plastics and other materials such as silicone or fluoropolymers. Hard lenses hold their shape, yet allow the free flow of oxygen through the lenses to the cornea.
RGP lenses may be the best choice when the cornea has enough astigmatism (is shaped like an egg instead of an orange) that a soft lens will not provide sharp vision. They may also be preferable when a person has allergies or tends to form protein deposits on his or her contacts.
Soft lenses are the choice of most contact lens wearers. These lenses are comfortable and come in many options for how you wear them. Soft lenses nowadays are made from substances with high water content, thus permit oxygen diffusion through it easily. Soft-lenses could cause allergic reaction for those who are sensitive with the lens components.
Daily wear lenses are the least expensive, are removed nightly and are replaced on an individualized schedule. They should not be used as an extended-wear lens.
Extended wear lenses are worn overnight but are removed at least weekly for thorough cleaning and disinfection. They are being recommended less frequently, since there is a greater risk of corneal infection with any overnight wear of contact lenses.
Disposable wear lenses are more expensive, but convenient. They are removed nightly and replaced on a daily, weekly or monthly basis. Disposable lenses are sometimes recommended for people with allergies and for those who tend to form deposits on their lenses.
Colored contact lenses can change the appearance of your eye color.
Toric soft contact lenses can correct astigmatism, although sometimes not as well as RGP lenses. They usually cost more than other contact lenses.
Contact Lenses from Clinical View
Visual Fields
Contact lenses is placed closely to the pupil, and doesn't need a frame in usage, thus factors give a better visual field correction than eye glasses. Contact lenses also only cause little marginal visual field distortion compare to eye glasses.
Accomodation
Compare to eye glasses, contact lenses increased the needs of accomodation in nearsightness and decrease the needs of accomodation in farsightnes compare with eye glasses.
Fitting Process
In using contact lenses whether hard or soft-lens, there is a need of fitting process, that is measuring the suitable contact lenses for the wearer. Fitting process in soft-lenses is shorter than hard-lenses because the material is soft thus can adapted to cornea shape easily.
Contact Lenses Complications
The complication of wearing contact lenses can be classified into: eyes and lenses.
Eyes or ocular complications are related to multifactorial such as allergic to lenses material, mechanical trauma, and disturbing corneal protection and nutrition since corneal is avascular tissue, thus nutrition is being supply by surrounding environment, and tear is one of the nutrition for the cornea.
Contact lenses, disturb nutritional supply for the cornea thus, will cause barrier loses then lead to infection of cornea.
Eye Infection related to Contact Lenses
Thus most of contact lenses wearers are suggested to remove their lenses during night or bedtime, to decrease the risk of corneal infection.
Any lens that is removed from the eye needs to be cleaned and disinfected before it is reinserted. The best type of cleansing system is depending on the type of lens, any allergies might have and whether or not eye tends to form protein deposits.
Care of contact lenses includes cleaning their case, since it is a potential source of infection. The case should be rinsed with contact lens solution and allowed to dry.
Homemade saline (salt water) solutions have been linked to serious corneal infections and should not be used.
The complication for the lenses is the occurance of deposits on the lenses such as iron, protein, fungi, etc. Thus make the lenses not clear and causing blurred image, discomfort also a predisposition factor for infection.
Therapeutic Contact Lenses
The usage of contact lenses for therapeutic purposes usually done for cornea abnormality. One of the indication is cornea ulceration. In cornea ulceration, there is an epithelial damaged. The epithelial regeneration or repair often not sufficient enough since it always disturb by blink mechanism, thus prolonged healing process.
Therapeutic contact lenses could be used in several conditions for:
1. Protective agents from epithelial abrasions by blink mechanism.
2. Protective agents for epithelial regeneration.
3. Protective agents against irritation at cornea nerve-endings.
Take Home Message
The health of your eye surface and tear film are very important to your comfort and the clarity of your vision when you are wearing contacts.
Choose an eye care professional who is experienced with contact lenses and with whom you can discuss your needs and expectations. Your eye care professional should diagnose and treat any eye problems that may prevent healthy lens wear and be able to correct problems that arise during lens wear.
You should examine your own motivation for wanting contacts and your commitment to the care and recommended replacement of contacts in order to maintain healthy eyes.
