Attractive contact lenses
by Kamalanath Liyanage
 Leonardo da Vinci was the first person who described and sketched the
first ideas for contact lenses in 1508. Modern contact lenses by Czech
Chemist Otto Wichter and Drahoslav Lim were made when the gel was first
used for the production. Nowadays about 2% from the world population
apply contact lenses for various purposes.
Advantages of using contact lenses: Contact lenses can be used for
corrective purposes like glasses. Normally, contact lenses are placed on
the cornea of the eye and they are lightweight and virtually invisible.
Compared with spectacles, contact lenses are less affected by wet
weather, do not steam up, and provide a wider field of vision. They are
more suitable for sporting activities too.
Contact lenses are popularly used as cosmetic uplift for enhancing a
person’s appearance and practicality. Many commercial lenses are tinted
a faint blue to make them more visible when immersed in cleaning and
storage solutions. Some cosmetic lenses are deliberately coloured to
alter the appearance of the eye.
Some contact lenses are used as therapeutic instruments. Some contact
lenses now have a thin surface treatment which is a UV coating which
helps to reduce UV damage to the eye’s natural lens. Soft lenses are
used in the treatment and management of non-refractive disorders of the
eye. A bandage contact lens protects an injured or diseased cornea from
the constant rubbing of blinking eyelids thereby allowing it to heal.
Types of contact lenses
Apart from the above types of contact lenses there are some
innovative types.
1. Hard contact lenses
The old types of hard contact lenses were made of hard plastic
materials. These rigid contact lenses offered excellent durability and
vision correction, but they were not very comfortable.
2. Soft contact lenses
Soft contact lenses are made of a soft polymer-plastic material
combined with a percentage of water. Many soft contact lenses also
provide UV protection.
3. Conventional, disposable and extended wear contact lenses
 A pair of conventional or traditional lenses can be worn for a period
of one year, sometimes longer. They need to be cleaned daily and stored
in a proper solution for contact lenses.
4. Disposable contact lenses can be disposed of after a certain
period of use
The period of use varies as there are one-month disposables, two-week
disposables and daily disposables. Extended wear lenses are typically
disposable but that can be worn overnight continuously for several days.
Crazy eye contact lenses
These eye-catching contacts come in funky designs and bright colours
to really get you noticed. Every Crazy contact lens offers exceptional
comfort and can be worn many times. There are several types of crazy
contact lenses such as blood Red, Devil, Dollar, Black Wolf, Red Wolf,
Red Spiral, Black Spiral, Basic White, Fire or Yellow Cat Eye.
Insertion and removal of the contact lenses
 It is desirable to get advice from an eminent doctor before you
introduce contact lenses into your eye. Contact lenses are typically
inserted into the eye by placing them on the index finger with the
concave side upward and raising them to touch the cornea.
The other hand is used to retain the eye open.A soft lens may be
removed by holding the eyelids open and grasping the lens with opposing
digits or the lens is moved off the cornea to the inner corner of the
eye, it can be pushed out of the eye by pressing downwards on the upper
eyelid with a finger whereas the rigid contact lenses may be removed by
pulling with one finger on the outer or lateral canthus, then blinking
to cause the lens to lose adhesion with the cornea. |
