Contact lenses have evolved out of all recognition since their early days in the 1960s and 1970s. When I first qualified in 1982, opticians spent an enormous amount of time sorting out contact lens problems and resultant eye infections. Around 50% of new fittings were either hard or gas permeable which meant that our patients weren't happy until they'd spent around at least six months of adaptation. Early soft lens adopters had to have a whole chemistry set to clean and sterilise their lenses every night. And monthly super-cleaning using protein removing tablets.

Nowadays, gas permeable lenses account for approximately 6% of new fittings, hard (PMMA) lenses are a thing of the past, and with the advent of daily disposables, solutions and infections are also consigned to history.

Not everyone is suitable for daily disposables, but if you are, then I would urge you to wear them in preference to other frequent replacement lenses. Although the lenses are more expensive, there's no cost for solutions and the ease of use and freedom from hassle and infections makes them worth every penny.

Both Ciba Vision and Acuvue have now introduced daily toric lenses for astigmatism.

We are also reasonably* successful with multifocal contact lenses.

* Vistakon, Johnson and Johnson's contact lens division, claim a 50% success rate with their multifocal contact lens. Personally, I find this uncomfortably low. There is now a wider range of multifocal lenses available and I would put my success rate at over 80%. Factors for success can be complicated - this would be discussed in detail prior to fitting.

For more information about these and any of our other products
email: adam@adamsimmonds.co.uk or telephone: 020 7813 1234