Believe it or not, contact lenses didn’t seem very much different than their glasses counterpart, that is, they were actually made of glass! While Leonardo Da Vinci is sometimes credited with dreaming up the ideas of using contacts, the first wearable contact wasn’t made until hundreds of years later by a German eye doctor (named Adolf Gaston Eugen Fick, if you care). These glass monstrosities actually worked, but were made by real glass and could only be worn for, at most, a few hours. The evolution of contact lenses has progressed far since then.
It wasn’t until sometime after the invention of Plexiglas, around the fifties, that there was something different available for contact wearers. These were much lighter and easier to use–but they were still so fragile and expensive that entire insurance schemes were created to protect you from the accidental damage of them (this type of insurance isn’t around anymore, as you can imagine.
These contacts had other problems as well, even if they were much better than glass; they didn’t let any oxygen get to the eye. None. This led to all kinds of problems as you can imagine (especially if you ever left your contacts in your eyes for too long). Fortunately, since then they came up with hard contacts that could allow air to get to the eyes.
The kind of contact lenses you might be more familiar with are the ones described as having “soft lenses”. These contacts were first used in the 60s and over time came to become the type of lens most prescribed to patients. Unlike hard lenses, these contacts don’t take a long time for the wearer to adjust for them, and they were much more comfortable. Over time, the technology behind soft lenses continued to improve in order to allow more and more air get to the wearer’s eyes.
When cheaper, lighter lenses became a reality, the idea of disposable contacts became one as well. If having a light-weight contact was a new comfort, so was having a fresh pair you could swap out every few weeks. These disposable contacts really lessened the maintenance that long-term contacts required, such as protein-removing soaks and the like.
The latest and greatest in contacts have been around for a while now, contacts made of silicone. These contacts, by comparison, allowed a lot of air to move freely around the eyes. Many of these contacts were advertised as pairs you could leave in your eyes overnight, and more recently they have been advertised as daily-disposables. Some research has shown that these can cause fewer complications than other types with extended wear.
The technology behind maintaining contact solution has changed as well. It used to be that contacts had to be cleaned with multiple solutions and given a regular soak to remove protein build-up. The latest solutions come in one bottle; you simply rinse off the contact and soak it in the same type of solution. There are also a plethora of eye-wetting solutions out there that can help improve your comfort while wearing contacts.
If you are considering contacts, now would be as good a time as ever–well, at least a much better time than a few years ago. The technology has really improved and made many of the health complications and discomfort of contact-wearing go away. Bad stuff can still happen to you if you don’t wear them properly, so always for the advice of your eye-doctor.
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