Eye Contacts What Kind of Eye Contacts Are There?

Eye contacts, also known as contact lenses or contacts, is a lens that is placed on and covers the cornea of the eye. Typically they are used as a corrective measure for poor eye sight. However, they are also used for cosmetic purposes. For example there are Halloween contacts that are used to alter the appearance of the eye to fit the costume.

Eye contacts serve the same function of glasses, but are virtually invisible. Just like eye glasses, lenses are designed to improve vision. In many people there is a difference or mismatch between the refractive power of the eye and the length of the eye. This leads to a refraction problem where the light is not focused properly on the retina and causes images to be distorted or blury. Glasses and contacts neutralize this mismatch and allow for the image to focus on the retina properly.

Over the last several years color contacts have become popular. These contacts offer the same corrective purpose as regular lenses but come in just about any color you can imagine including the more natural colors such as blue, green and brown.

There are many reasons people choose to wear contact lenses. When compared to eye glasses, they are less affected by the weather, have a much wider field of vision, don’t steam up, nor have the annoying feeling of sliding down the bridge of your nose like glasses do.

For these reasons many people enjoy the benefits of eye contacts, especially those that play sports. With the competition levels in sports it can be very difficult if not unsafe to wear glasses. This is why most sport players that need corrective vision wear contact lenses.

There are also some known vision conditions that cannot accurately correct the vision by simply wearing eye glasses. Conditions such as keratoconus and aniseikonia require the use of contacts to accurately alter a patients vision to a normal state.

With the advancement in technology, there have been many variations of lenses brought to the market. There are:

Hard Eye Contacts
Soft Eye Contacts
Colored Eye Contact Lenses
Toric Contact Lenses
Disposable Contact Lenses
Bifocal Contact Lenses
Halloween Contacts Lenses
Extended Wear Contacts
Special Effects Contacts

How To Insert Contact Lenses

Step 1: You will need
A pair of soft lenses
Solution
A clean contact lens case
Plain, non-moisturising soap
A towel. Use lint-free paper towels if possible.
A wash basin
A mirror
Plenty of light
Step 2: Wash and dry hands
Wash your hands thoroughly with soap and warm water, then make sure all the soap is rinsed off. Use a towel to completely dry your hands so there is no water left on them.

Step 3: Prepare
Open the lens case and carefully remove the first contact lens. If your eyes have different prescriptions, your optometrist will tell you which lens is for the right eye and which is for the left. Place the lens onto the index finger of your dominant hand. Make sure the contact lens is not inside out. The outer edge of the lens should curve inwards not outwards.

Step 4: Insert Contact Lens
Using the middle finger of your dominant hand, gently pull your lower eyelid downwards. Using the middle finger of your other hand, pull your upper eyelid upwards. Look up at the ceiling and gently place the contact lens onto the lower white part of your eye.

Step 5: Adjust
Let go of your eyelids and blink several times to adjust. You may also need to roll your eye around in different directions for the contac lens to centre itself. If there are air bubbles trapped under the lens, close your eye and press softly onto your closed eyelid to eject the bubbles.

Step 6: Repeat
Now repeat the procedure for your other eye. For further information watch VideoJug's films 'How to remove contact lenses' and 'How to clean contact lenses.' You are now ready to enjoy your day without glasses.

Color Contact Lenses

Colored contact lenses come in three kinds: visibility tints, enhancement tints and opaque color tints.

Many of these colored contact lenses are available in plano form, as well as in designs for people who have astigmatism, need bifocal contacts or want a disposable contact lens.

A visibility tint is usually a light blue or green tint added to a lens, just to help you see it better during insertion and removal, or if you drop it. Since it's a very light tint, it does not affect your eye color.

An enhancement tint is a solid but translucent (see-through) tint that is a little darker than a visibility tint. An enhancement tint does change your eye color. As the name implies, it's meant to enhance the existing color of your eyes. These types of tints are usually best for people who have light colored eyes and want to make their eye color more intense.

Color tints are deeper, opaque tints that can change your eye color completely. Usually they are made of patterns of solid colors. If you have dark eyes, you'll need this type of color contact lens to change your eye color. Color contacts come in a wide variety of colors, including hazel, green, blue, violet, amethyst and gray.


Left: The "gemstone green" color in FreshLook ColorBlends' new VibrantViews collection, meant to be more noticeable than other ColorBlends colors. Right: All ColorBlends lenses use three separate dot patterns, combined onto one lens, for natural-looking colors.
The companies that make colored contact lenses have gone all out to mimic the natural look of the colored portion of the eye, called the iris. Since this area is made up of colorful shapes and lines, some color contacts feature a series of tiny colored dots on the lens to make them look more natural on the eye.

But the center of the lens, the part that lies over your pupil, is clear so you can see.

Costume or theatrical contact lenses also fall into the category of opaque color tints. Long used in the movies (examples are The Man Who Fell to Earth and Twilight), these special-effect contact lenses are now widely available for novelty use and can temporarily transform the wearer into an alien or jaguar, among others.

Some Disadvantages of Color Contact Lenses

Although there are different sized lenses to fit most wearers, there will be some occasions (such as during blinking) where the colored portion may slide somewhat over the pupil.

Also, the size of your pupil is constantly changing to accommodate varying light conditions — so sometimes, like at night, your pupil may be larger than the clear center of the lens. In these instances, your vision may be slightly affected.

If you have a persistent problem with your contacts, it's important to see your eye doctor.

Sharing Contacts: A Bad Idea

While color contacts can be fun, doctors warn wearers not to share their colored lenses — or any contact lenses, for that matter — with friends, and not to swap colors with friends.

Contact lenses are medical devices and are fitted to the specifications of each individual's eyes. Exchanging lenses can also transmit harmful bacteria, which can lead to an eye infection or other potentially dangerous eye conditions.

Color contacts, like clear contact lenses, must be properly cleaned and disinfected with appropriate cleaning products. Ask your doctor which cleaning products are best for your particular lenses.

Do You Need a Prescription for Colored Contact Lenses?

Yes, under U.S. law you need a contact lens prescription. This is true even for "plano" lenses that don't have prescriptive power.

For a two-and-a-half-year period the government classified plano decorative contact lenses as cosmetic devices rather than medical devices. But the FDA issued a consumer alert regarding such lenses, saying that they "present significant risks of blindness and other eye injury if they are distributed without a prescription or without proper fitting by a qualified eye care professional."

In November 2005, President George W. Bush signed into law Public Law 109-96 (sometimes referred to as the Plano Contact Lens Law), which classifies all contact lenses — including color contact lenses and prosthetic contact lenses that do not contain any power to correct vision problems — as medical devices under the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act. Among other things, this classification demands that all contact lenses, worn for any purpose, require a valid contact lens prescription written by an eye doctor and cannot be sold to consumers without one.

If you see color contact lenses being sold in a flea market, it is likely that the vendors are breaking the law. Recently flea market vendors in Jacksonville, Fla., were warned to stop selling color contact lenses and were, pending investigation, subject to being charged with a misdemeanor for selling them without a state license.

Other illegal sales of cosmetic contact lenses have been discovered in gas stations, beauty salons and novelty shops.