EyeWish Optometry

March 23, 2010

Announcing new Freshlook colors from Ciba. We are excited to present Ciba's new colors: Sterling Gray, Brilliant Blue and Gemstone Green. They are sure to add sparkle and interest to your new look. You can change colors of contacts as often as you change outfits with new Freshlook Dailies. Please see Ciba's cool interactive website at www.freshlookcontacts.com, there you can upload your photo and virtually try on colors. Call us to schedule an appointment to try some new colors when you would like to enhance your appearance with colored contact lenses.

New Silicone Hydrogel Contact Lenses Allow For Safer Extended Wear.
Silicone hydrogel lenses allow more oxygen to reach the eye than do the standard contact lenses. More oxygen to the eye means better eye health including less risk of severe eye inflammation, less new blood vessel growth to the cornea and less dry eye symptoms. Some of these lenses, like Ciba Night and Day and Bausch and Lomb's Purevision have been approved for 30 days of continuous wear. Yes, that's right, you can sleep in them for up to 30 nights. Vigorous testing of these types of contact lenses has been done and one study found that for patients who slept in their lenses, wearers of silicone hydrogel contact lenses were 5 times less likely to experience the severe form of keratitis (eye inflammation) than individuals who wore lenses made of regular hydrogel (the standard type of contact lenses). Most optometrists agree, if you absolutely insist on sleeping in your lenses, then, they should be the lenses made out of silicone hydrogel.

Examples of 30 Day Continuous Wear Silicone Hydrogel Contact Lenses:

  • Focus Night & Day (CIBA Vision)
  • PureVision (Bausch & Lomb)

    • Daily and Extended Wear Silicone Hydrogel Contact Lens:

  • Acuvue Oasys (Vistakon), which received a new FDA indication in late December 2005 for extended wear of up to six nights and seven days.
  • Acuvue Advance (Vistakon), approved for daily wear, replace every 2 weeks
  • O2 Optix (CIBA Vision), daily wear or extended wear, replace every 2 to 4 weeks
  • Biofinity (Coopervision), daily wear, replace every 4 weeks

    • We have bifocal contact lenses.

    Can I sleep in my contacts?


    Extended wear contacts can be worn while you sleep. They may take some getting used to but once you do some people don't even notice that they are in! We recommend that you limit the nights sleeping in your contacts, and at the very least take them out once a week to clean them. Contact lenses have a build up of protein and bacteria over time, so taking them out gives your eye a chance to recover. Extended wear contact lenses are permeable to oxygen but not 100% and your eye needs to "breathe".