The Old Hard Compared To Soft Contact Lenses
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I can remember a time when hard contact lenses were the only ones you could buy. Today, these are relics of the past that have been replaced by more flexible materials. Hard contact lenses are hardly ever prescribed in fact that nowadays they’re practically obsolete!
Hard contact lenses
The early hard contact lenses were made out of a material called polymethyl methacrylate or PMMA, they also call it Lucite. Very uncomfortable to wear but they didn’t distort your vision. It took a long time to get used to them and they needed a lot of maintenance.
The material used to make hard contact lenses caused other problems as well. It was non-gas permeable meaning that it did not allow much oxygen to flow through. Because of this, people were told not to wear them for more than 12 hours at a time.
Soft contact lenses
Advances in contacts led to the creation of a more comfortable lens – the soft contact lens. These lenses are prescribed most often because practically anyone can wear them. Soft contact lenses are made with water so they float more freely on the surface of the eye. Because they’re so comfortable, it’s easy for people to get used to wearing them. In addition, the lens is very porous which means that oxygen can freely pass through the lens where it can reach the cornea.
This comfort does come at a price, but fortunately, it’s a small one. Soft lenses are not as durable as other types of lenses meaning they’re more likely to tear, even when being handled under normal circumstances. Another downside of soft contact lenses is that vision isn’t as sharp as it can be with other types of corrective lenses. But even though vision might not be as crisp, it’s clear enough that most people don’t even notice it’s lacking.
Another problem is that soft contact lenses are more susceptible to protein build-up. Over time such build-up can distort or negatively impact vision. The build-up of protein also can cause discomfort. These are those little floaters and spots you sometimes see. For these reasons, it very important to properly care for your soft contact lenses with some good quailty mantenance.
Luckily, as fast as the technology behind contact lenses is improving , so too is the market for contact lens cleaning and disinfecting solutions. In the beginning, there was a separate product for each step: cleaning, rinsing, disinfecting and storage. Now, one product can handle all the steps, without needing to rub the lenses to remove protein deposits.
For those who either don’t have the time or who aren’t disciplined enough to properly care for their soft contact lenses, disposable contact lenses are usually the better way to go. These soft contact lenses are designed to be thrown away after a certain period of time, daily, weekly or monthly. Since the lenses are thrown away rather than continually reused, the chances of bacterial infection and/or protein build-up are greatly reduced.
If it’s a choice between hard contact lenses and soft, soft wins hands down! Or is that eyes up?
