Contact lenses for personalized needs

In the modern world, corrective contact lenses either in GP or soft type are widely worn by people who have a visual refractive error or presbyopia. Regular RGP lenses and soft lenses can deal with vision problems in a majority of patients. However, some people may need customized contact lenses if they have special eyes or high astigmatism, or they just need additional comfort and particularly clear vision. Both RGPs and soft lenses are available for people’s personalized needs.

The upside and downside of conventional RGP lenses

RGPs are commonly acknowledged that they provide clearer vision than soft lenses, especially for astigmatism correction. Most of the traditional RGPs have a slight gap between the lens edge and the eye surface, in order to allow more oxygen in tears during blinking. It is still this special design which may make people uncomfortable, especially for those with an irregular eye surface shape. In this case, customized RGPs are designed to tackle this dilemma. Customized rigid gas permeable lenses usually take different measurements and lens designs.

Measurements of conventional RGPs

For conventional RGPs, an instrument called keratometer is used to measure the cornea’s curvature. And the curvature of conventional RGPs has three elements: the curve of the steepest meridian, the curve of the flattest meridian and the orientation of the flattest meridian. These measurements help doctors or manufacturers determine the curves of RGPs’ back surface. Conventional RGPs always have a central curve and two periphery flatter curves.

Measurements and improvement of custom RGPs

Custom RGPs require more complex eye measurements and lens designs. Unlike conventional RGPs, personalized RGPs need to obtain the eye’s several thousand points’ curvatures data by using a corneal topographer. All these curves are used to form multi-curved lenses, which conform more closely to cornea surface and create smoother point-to-point curvature changes. These measurements and lens designs provide more comfortable fitting for special eyes and also permit more oxygen to directly reach the eyes.

Custom contact lenses offer a change for everyone who has been disappointed with traditional RGPs. Custom RGPs are particularly useful for people with keratoconus and irregular corneal curvatures, which may be caused by an eye injury, failed LASIK or just born with that. Another type of custom RGPs are multifocal RGPs, which are created for presbyopia. In conclusion, custom RGPs provide a more effective way to correct myopia and astigmatism.

Customized soft contact lenses

Soft contacts are also available in custom types, even if they are not as competitive as custom RGPs. But custom soft contacts do offer a better solution for high-level astigmatism than conventional toric contacts, which are effective only for astigmatism below 2.5 diopters. Custom soft lenses offer higher powers as well as slighter increments. Except for prescription customized soft lenses, there are still personalized soft lenses for cosmetic purposes. Some manufacturers provide hand painted soft contacts that will cosmetically correct an impaired appearance.

About price

Custom contact lenses may be your good choice once you have failed in fitting some conventional contacts or you just want to make a change. Requiring additional time and skills, custom contacts cost about twice more than common contact lenses. You may contact your eye doctor for detailed information.