Types of Contact Lenses

Wearing contact lenses gives patients the flexibility and freedom to live life to the fullest, without some of the difficulties presented by wearing glasses. Many people who choose contact lenses do so because they don’t like the way that glasses look or feel. Sometimes wearing glasses may compromise the ability to perform certain tasks or activities, such as sports or jobs that require the use of safety goggles. There are lots of different contact lenses to choose from, and the doctors at VoloVision will help determine the best options for you!
 

Soft Lenses

This type of lens is the most popular due to its versatility and comfort. Soft lenses are made out of hydrogel or silicone hydrogel material. Some of the features of this material include high oxygen permeability, a high degree of moisture retention, and extreme flexibility. This combination makes soft lenses breathable and comfortable to wear. Depending on how often you wear contacts, these lenses can have varying replacement schedules. Some contacts are changed daily, weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly depending on what type of lens is selected. Most contacts are “daily wear” lenses, which means they are intended to be worn in the daytime and removed at night. Some brands are FDA approved for extended wear, this means contact can be worn for consecutive days without replacement. Our doctors will help determine which lens is best for you!
 

RGP (Hard Lenses)

A Rigid Gas Permeable (RGP) is a type of “breathable” hard contact lens. Similar to soft contacts, RGP lens design allows oxygen to get to your eye. But unlike its soft lens counterpart, this type of lens is rigid and holds its shape. RGP lenses are recommended for conditions such as astigmatism, keratoconus, and allergies due to protein build-up. This lens is custom fit to your eye shape and prescription. Because of their customizable nature, RGPs are perfect for higher powers, irregular astigmatism, and multifocal. 

Toric Lenses

Toric contact lenses are recommended for patients who have a refractive eye problem called astigmatism. Patients with astigmatism have corneal abnormalities that cause the refraction of the eye to be different between the vertical and horizontal planes, causing blurred vision and difficulty seeing fine details. Toric contact lenses are shaped in a particular way that creates the different focusing powers needed in each part of the lens to correct your vision. For this reason, toric lenses are a more personalized fit. Fortunately, our doctors will advise you if you are a good candidate for toric contact lenses and help choose a correct design to custom fit your eyes. Toric contacts come as both soft and RGP lenses.

Specialized Contacts

After the age of 40, reading up close becomes more of a challenge. Instead of reaching for a pair of reading glasses, there are a few options for contact lenses we can prescribe that will give you both great distance vision and the ability to see up close. 

Monovision

Monovision is a technique used with conventional contact lenses to aid in age-related near vision struggles. To start, we will test for eye dominance. Everyone has a dominant eye, much like being right or left-handed, this is the eye that you rely on most. Monovision corrects your dominant eye for distance and the other eye becomes more nearsighted. When looking at something far away, the dominant eye takes over. When looking at something up close, the other eye becomes active. Seems complicated, but the brain adapts quickly to the new correction and soon it becomes second nature. 

Multifocal

Multifocal contact lenses work much like bifocal eyeglasses by having two prescriptions in one lens. One prescription to correct distance vision, and another prescription to correct near vision. If you are tired of putting reading glasses over your contacts, this is a possible solution for you. Bifocal contacts come as both soft and RGP lenses.