LensPriceCompare Blog

The cornea of the eye should be spherical on the outer surface. If you took a round ball, and sliced off about one eight off the end, you would be left with roughly the shape of a cornea. Regular contact lenses are spherically shaped both on the inside and outside surfaces near the cornea of the eye. Subtle conditions can cause the cornea to lose its spherical shape, which in turn may cause blurred vision, and a not so subtle symptom.

Astigmatism of the cornea is one condition where blurriness results. Astigmatism is a condition where the cornea loses its spherical shape and is elongated on one axis. Presbyopia is an age related problem. As we get older, the shape of the eye (among other things) changes shape. When the surface of our eyes change shape, we begin to struggle in certain conditions. For the most if you have Presbyopia, you will have difficulty focusing on items close up. Aspheric contact lenses are designed to help with these conditions.

In Rosenbloom & Morgan’s Vision and Aging (By Alfred A. Rosenbloom, Meredith W. Morgan, P 233) aspheric contact lenses are described as lenses without inside curvature near the center of the lens. The inside surface is instead flattened and progresses at an angle, so aspheric lenses may also be used for progressive lens functions, a common requirement for people with presbyopia who wish to wear contact lenses.

Two well known aspheric contact lenses are Frequency 55 Aspheric and Biomedics 55 Premier. “55” refers to the amount of water content in these contact lenses. Water is one medium used to circulate oxygen around surface of the eye. Oxygen circulation is improved by using silicon hydrogel lenses, which may be worn for longer periods of time.

If you currently wear glasses and know you suffer from astigmatism, your eye care professional may be able to fit you with contact lenses. Fitting contact lenses is quite subjective to patient comfort and vision, and fitting gets more complicated when astigmatism is involved. It may require more than one consultation to establish the best contact lens for you.

The cornea is located at the very front of the eye and is the area, which actually contacts with air. Beneath the cornea lies the pupil and the lens. Our corneas are normally spherical in shape like a golf ball. The X and Y Axis on a golf ball are of equal lengths. When light enters the correctly formed cornea, it is clearly defined and focused into to one point. For some people the cornea goes out of shape and one axis is longer than the other and therefore the axis are asymmetrical, like a rugby ball, or American football. This condition is known as astigmatism. When light enters the incorrectly formed cornea or cornea with astigmatism, the light is not focused directly to one point, and results in blurred vision. Toric contact lenses are designed to correct vision for people who suffer from astigmatism.

Your Eye

The word toric is derived for the geometrical torus shape. It’s basically like a donut.  Contact lenses are normally spherical around the cornea, but contact lenses for astigmatism must differ because of the asymmetric shape of the cornea. Simply put the donut fits around and somewhat corrects the astigmatism in your eye.

Most major manufacturers provide their version of contact lenses for astigmatism. Acuvue markets Acuvue Oasys For Astigmatism, and Acuvue Advance For Astigmatism. Ciba-Vision supplies Air Optix For Astigmatism. Bausch & Lomb manufactures Purevision Toric. Lenses for astigmatism may be hard or soft format contacts. Hard contacts tend to force the cornea into the most desirable geometry and so provide better vision, while soft contacts being less rigid tend to be more comfortable. Hard contacts usually require more attention through handling and maintenance while soft lenses are disposable and less expensive.

If you have eye astigmatism you will likely pay more for your toric contact lenses than for regular lenses. Toric lenses are not produced in the quantity of spheric lenses, and cost more to manufacture. They also cost more to develop. Eye care professionals may take more time to ensure the lens provides clear vision and fits comfortably.

If you suffer from astigmatism and would like to try out contact lenses, make an appointment with your eye care professional. You never know, contact lenses might be right for you!

October has been a busy month for Halloween lenses. Our merchants continue to ship special effects contact lenses. The problem is that you won’t get them in time for Halloween 2008.  Lenses generally need to be prepared before shipping and this adds extra time.

Some of the popular spooky lenses like Cats Eyes and Manson lenses were very successful. A set of these lenses cost in the region of $70. It might seem a bit much for a couple of little contacts, but sometimes the little things go a long, long way in terms of special effects. When people look at your costume, they first look at you, and more specifically, they first look at your eyes. You could go as far as to say that if you only had a super cool set of contact lenses, that would be all you need!

For future reference, you really need to order special effects lenses at least two weeks in advance. With less than two weeks in advance, the chances that something will go wrong will go up. You can order one week in advance but you may not get your lenses exactly on time. Also for future reference, you need to acquire a prescription before you buy special effects contact lenses. If you normally do not wear lenses, you can get a prescription with zero correction factor. You must get a prescription from your eye care practitioner. Also, follow basic contact lens hygiene guidelines as advised by the American Optometric Association.

I n two days time all the costume preparation, and the added effort in purchasing special effects lenses will clearly pay off. We wish you a happy Halloween and hope you have lots of fun with those costume lenses.

We recently had a question about how online retailers handle Flexible Spending Accounts (FSA) / Health Savings Accounts (HSA) and insurance claims. We inquired at two retailers who both replied that they did not deal with insurance companies at all. Some online retailers notate their products indicating the product likely qualifies for FSA spending. FSA credit cards may be used to pay online retailers directly from an FSA account.

FSA accounts work really well with contact lens purchasing because remaining FSA balances must be forfeited or used by the end of the year. Excess money in the account can be spent on up to 12 months worth of contact lenses with a new prescription.

Generally, we cannot answer for merchants on FSA policies and procedures. Specific inquiries must be directed to them by phone or email.

LASIK (acronym for laser assisted in situ keratomileusis) and contact lenses both have risks. Without a full-blown set of statistics here, it is not appropriate to comment on risk factors. No doubt, a study is available from some organization or corporation. What’s troubling though, is that LASIK is probably irreversible, and you only get one chance to get it right. If it’s a case of getting what you pay for, don’t scrimp on LASIK.

About 700,000 people per year have laser surgery at an average cost of $2000. According to this article one in four candidates are not suited to receive LASIK treatment, and 1 percent or fewer experience serious side effects.

In the second eye-opening article in as many weeks, we are again reminded about the risks involved with LASIK eye surgery. On Friday April 25th in Washington, former LASIK patients who suffered unsuccessful eye surgery complained about lack of LASIK risk information to federal health advisors.

To summarize the federal health advisors recommended warnings to be more prominent:

• Add photographs that illustrate what people suffering certain side effects actually see, such as the glare that can make oncoming headlights a huge “starburst” of light.

• Clarify how often patients suffer different side effects, such as dry eye. Some eye surgeons say 31 percent of Lasik patients have some degree of dry eye before surgery, and it worsens for about 5 percent afterward. Other studies say 48 percent of Lasik recipients suffer some degree of dry eye months later.

• Make more understandable the conditions that should disqualify someone from Lasik, such as large pupils or severe nearsightedness.

• And spell out that anyone whose nearsightedness is fixed by Lasik is guaranteed to need reading glasses in middle age, something that might not be needed if they skip Lasik.