About extended wear contacts

Contact lens wearers know about solutions and not the kind that fix problems. The average contact lens wearer goes through gallons of contact lens cleaner, disinfectant, and multipurpose solution, and has to worry constantly about foreign substances entering the eye. One sure solution to the "solution blues" is with extended wear contact lenses.

The principle behind extended wear contact lenses is essentially very simple. Instead of inserting your lenses in the morning and taking them out at night, extended wear contact lenses stay on the eye for a long amount of time. Because they are designed to allow more oxygen to reach your eyes, these lenses can be worn even while you sleep, which means you get to avoid the nightly routine of removing and cleaning your contact lenses, and you will even be able to see your clock radio when you wake up in the middle of the night.

Several manufacturers produce 7-day extended wear lenses. Acuvue was one of the first to market an extended wear lens that could be worn for seven days, but other manufacturers soon followed with extended wear lenses of their own. Night and Day contact lenses by CIBA Vision are 30-day extended wear contact lenses that offer the most flexible contact lens wearing option ever. Although the FDA approved 30-day lenses in 1981, it quickly became apparent that people using extended wear lenses were more vulnerable to infection. However, new materials and manufacturing processes have now made 30-day lenses safe, simple, and affordable enough for most budgets.

Extended wear contact lenses are an excellent alternative to laser eye surgery. They also provide a solution to the "solution blues," because after you wear them for the prescribed period, you simply throw them away. That means there is no cleaning and no expensive products are needed to care for your contacts!

By Renee Dietz
April, 2004