Contact Lenses Eyeglasses

The eyes have been a subject of intense exploration from time immemorial. Indeed, your eyes define you. Cosmetic enhancement of eyes using kohl, eye liner and eye paint have been around since the days of the ancient Egyptians and the Hindus over 6000 years ago. As technology improved, so has our ability to attune our knowledge to further the appeal of a pair of captivating eyes. The advent of contact eye lenses has taken the fashion world by storm, no less. Gone are the days when people chose normal contact eye lenses, a substitute for prescription eye glasses. Transparent and colorless normal lenses have varied magnification factor depending upon the user’s visual status. Normal lenses may also serve specific purposes – a variation of normal contact eye lenses is the bandage lens which acts as a protective cover for a damaged cornea requiring protection during healing.

Special effect lenses are a class apart. They are also called as theatrical lenses. These lenses are typically used by movie actors who may be playing an unusual character, a vampire or a ghoul, for example, or some other theatrical character which necessitates a distinctive look.

Different Types of Theatrical Lenses

Unlike normal lenses which cover only the cornea, special effect lenses cover the entire eyeball. Special effect lenses have a small opening in them through which the wearer actually sees. Therefore, those with weak eyes or those who require corrective lenses cannot wear special effect lenses as these are purely theatrical in nature. Also, since the special effect lenses have a different way of wearing and cover the entire eyeball, they are difficult to wear and rotate your eyeballs once worn. Once worn, special effect lenses usually are limited by a 3-hour duration, as wearing them beyond that may cause severe eye strain or even some sort of permanent damage. It is for this reason that a prospective user is required to obtain a doctor’s prescription to buy special effect lenses. A safety certificate preferably from a qualified eye care specialist’s is very useful in ascertaining if you are a suitable candidate for special effect lenses. It is prudent to wear special effects lenses under the guidance of an eye care professional.

At the opposite spectrum of utility are the normal contact lenses which serve therapeutic purposes alone. These can usually be worn for extended time periods, such as night-and-day wear lenses, or the disposable ones that are replaced regularly. Special effect lenses on the other hand are a specialty niche that finds usage in the world of theatre – from horror to science fiction movies. Naturally the variety of special effects lenses available is tremendous. You have lenses that give you a cat-eyed image or a jaguar-like feel. There are special effect lenses that are blood red or hypnotic, lenses that give you ‘wild-looking’ eyes, those that blaze like a wildfire, or give you a Zombie look. From ‘white eye’ lenses to contacts that make you eyes glow in the dark, the range is limited only by human imagination. So if it is a pair of special effect lenses you seek, there’s no dearth of choice – just grab the most startling pair and turn the spotlight your way.

Since the first commercial contact lenses were introduced to the general public in the 1950’s, researchers have been constantly trying to find ways to make contact lenses more comfortable and effective for the people that choose to wear them.  Over the last several decades, there have been many advancements made in the world of optometry with none as dramatic as the changes that have been made to the typical contact lens.  These advancements have prompted many people to switch from traditional eyeglasses to contact lenses as contact lenses are now able to correct many more types of vision problems than before.

One of the most important advancements in contact lens technology is the movement away from glass as the material that contact lenses are created from.  These original hard glass contact lenses were stiff and inflexible, causing significant discomfort to many of the people that chose to wear them.  Over time, glass gave way to softer, plastic lenses which were more comfortable to wear and could be worn for longer periods of time without causing irritation to the eyes.  The newest material used for the manufacture of contact lenses is a gas permeable material that allows air to flow through the contact lenses to the eyes, making them even more comfortable for the thousands that choose to wear them.

Another advancement in contact lenses is the ability to create contact lenses that a person can wear for an extended period of time without having to remove them.  In the beginning, the contact lenses had to be removed after a couple of hours to avoid eye irritation and even the newer types of contact lenses needed to be removed each night to prevent damage to the eyes while sleeping.  The most recent versions of contact lenses can be worn constantly for a week or more, reducing the number of times that the person has to remove the contact lenses from their eyes, which for many people is the most uncomfortable part of wearing contact lenses.

At one time, the only types of vision correction that could be accomplished with contact lenses were the correction of near-sightedness (myopia) and far-sightedness (hyperopia).  In recent years, contact lenses that can be used to correct astigmatism and even bifocal contact lenses have been introduced to the commercial market.  This has allowed a larger number of people to take advantage of the benefits of wearing contact lenses and has resulted in a significant increase in the sales of contact lenses year after year.

Contact lenses have become so popular in recent years that many people now choose to wear them for purely cosmetic reasons.  There are a number of different brands of contacts lenses that are created not to correct a vision issue but to change the color of the eye.  Some of these eye changing contact lenses create subtle changes, such as making the color of a blue eye more dramatic or changing the color of a brown eye to hazel.  Others are much more dramatic, changing the eye to a color never seen in nature or adding decorations such as flames or elongated pupils to the appearance of the eye.  There have been many advances in contact lenses over the years and each improvement has convinced more people that contact lenses may be the right option for them.