Buy Soft Contact Lenses
Whether you're a first-time contact lens patient trying to find out how to choose the best soft contact lenses, or you're an experienced contact lens wearer who wants to know what the latest lens developments are, you will probably find yourself lost in a sea of choices. First, there are many different types of lenses that are designed to meet specific medical needs. Add to that, the fact that there are different types of contacts developed to present you with a variety of convenience alternatives, depending on your lens wearing style. Multiply all of this by the stylistic choices and the various brands, and your efforts to pick the contacts you want can seem like an overwhelming task. However, if you focus on a few simple key factors in your search for the ideal soft contact lenses, you can easily and confidently choose the contacts that best meet your needs.
Medical Needs - The first step in choosing your soft contact lenses is to remember any medical needs you may have. For example, if you have astigmatism (uneven shape of the cornea), your doctor may recommend a "toric" lens. This special type of soft contact lens has different powers built into it at different angles to correct your uneven vision, and has an anchoring mechanism to keep the lens from shifting around on your eye, which would be uncomfortable since your cornea is uneven. If your problem is that you need different correction for your distance vision, versus your near vision (a problem for most middle-aged people), your doctor will probably help you choose one of the many bifocal soft contact lenses available. You can select from bifocal contacts with various correction systems, with names like "simultaneous", "concentric" and "alternating" - all you have to remember is that each one has the different lens powers located in different places on the contact lens. Another option to bifocals is called "monovision" and involves having one eye with a lens for distance vision, and the other eye with a lens for near vision, and letting your brain adjust to determine which lens is preferred at any given moment. If your problem is that you need a firmer lens, either because you've had cataract surgery or you desire to correct the shape of your cornea without laser surgery, you may want to ask your doctor about rigid gas permeable lenses, an alternative to soft contact lenses.
Length of Wearing Time - Another factor in choosing your soft contact lenses is the length of wearing time you want. There are several different types of soft lenses that are made for different wearing times, depending on what you prefer. You can get "daily" lenses which are designed to be discarded every day, so you don't have to worry about removing, cleaning or inserting them each day. There are one to two-week lenses, which do have to be cleaned and inserted each day, but which are built to last for a week or two. You can even get monthly lenses which can be used for a month before you have to throw them away. Most of these contact lenses also come in an "extended wear" option, meaning that you can wear them 24 hours a day.
Colors - Not only do you have choices related to your medical needs and wearing times, buy you can also get most of those lenses with different types of colors. There are "enhancertints", which add some slight color to light- colored eyes. You can also find opaque colored lenses, which can color darker eyes as well. Almost all soft contact lenses have some slight tint added, just to make them easier to find when getting them out of their soaking solution.
Brand Names - To add to your choices, there are also many brand names available. The hundreds of brand names seem to give the impression that there are a lot more lens brands on the market than there really are. This is because a given type of lens can be marketed under a number of different brand names, even though it's just one lens. For example, a lens made by Biomedics, like the popular Biomedics 55, may also be packaged under names like Aqualens, Aquatech, Clinasoft, Diagnostics, Hydroflex, Hydrovue, Optiflex, Optiform, P Label Disp., Polysoft, Procon, Proflex, Prosite, Sofmed, Softech, Softique, Softmed, Softview, Ultraflex, Veraflex Eyemed, Versaflex, and Versaflex Eyemed. It's easy to see how contact lens selection can get so complicated. Some examples of key popular brand names to focus on are Accuvue, Bausch and Lomb, Biomedics, Durasoft, Focus, Proclear, and Prosite.
The world of contacts available out there is clearly overwhelming when you are trying to select contacts to buy, especially for a first-time patient. There are so many choices in vision correction, convenience factors, styles and brands that the result is literally millions of combinations. However, if you simply focus on the key features of medical need, wearing time, color and brand, you will find that you can keep your decision manageable and more easily determine the type and style of contact that is perfect for you.
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