If you’ve been wearing glasses for a number of years, like me, then you may be wondering if contacts are right for you? There are a number of advantages to wearing contact lenses over eyeglasses and you may find that you like them better. Take a few minutes to read some good information about contact lenses and how to get them for yourself.
Contact Lens History
Early contacts amazingly date back into the 19th century. At that time, they were made of brown glass and were not easy to wear. They were, however, helpful to people that could not wear eyeglasses. Contact lens technology improved in the 1940s and 1950 when they were able to make them from plastic instead. These were made out of a plastic material called polymethyl methacrylte and worked well. The only problem was that they did not allow oxygen to easily pass through them. Since then, the plastic material has improved and is now rigid gas permeable, allowing oxygen to get to your corneas. This is necessary because your corneas get the oxygen they need from the air, not your bloodstream.
We’ve seen in the last few years how contact lens technology is still improving. People that have astigmatism can now get toric contact lenses. And people that need bifocal lenses can now get special contact lenses made, too.
Reasons for Wearing Contact Lenses
Beside for cosmetic reasons, people wear contacts for a variety of other reasons including:
* Unlike eyeglasses, the lens moves with your eye so there is no image distortion.
* Your side vision is not obstructed with the frame of the glasses.
* Contact lenses don’t steam up like glasses do when you go from cold to warm temperatures.
* Contacts don’t get dirty like the lenses on glasses do and they don’t get rain or snow on them when you’re outside in the weather.
* An injured cornea can heal faster when its protected by contact lenses.
So How Do You Get Contact Lenses?
The next step, if you’re interested, is to to see your eye care professional to get a prescription for contact lenses since you can’t order contacts with a prescription for glasses. You’ll go through some easy vision tests that only take about 15 minutes or so. You should also get the test for Glaucoma, which is the one where there’s a tiny puff of air that gets shot into your eye. Jennifer Aniston’s character, Rachel, from Friends made a big deal about it, but it’s actually no big deal at all.