The Eye-Friendly Gas Permeable Contacts

Wearing a contact is like wearing a second skin on the most sensitive part of your eye. It might sound quite scary at first but considering the astounding number of people wearing them, it seems the planet is far braver than it seems to be. As I said, it's like wearing a second skin, which implies the more it behaves like real skin the better and more comfortable it is likely to be. Perhaps that's the reason why gas permeable contact lenses have stood the proverbial test of time.

Let's have a quick sneak peek at gas permeable contact lenses.

The Advent
The initial corneal lenses developed way back in the 1950s, which are also called the PMMA corneal lenses, had quite prominent disadvantage. It did not allow oxygen to permeate through, which quite obviously could create a number of clinical complexities. It was this drawback that occasioned the research and development on what has now come to be called 'gas permeable contact lens.' They were earlier called 'rigid gas permeable' lenses or the RGP lenses. Some experts feel that describing RPG as 'gas permeable' is quite misleading because even soft lenses allow the movement of oxygen to a certain extent. However, the oxygen movement is not enough to reduce the irritation caused by the lack of it.

Advantages
These are made of harder plastic materials with no water content, and are thus less flexible than soft contact lenses. Gas permeable lenses help correct quite a wide range of ocular problems including astigmatism. You don't need to be too careful with these lenses, for they are relatively sturdy, besides the likelihood of infection is scaled down to a large extent. Being tough, they are more durable than the soft lenses.

Disadvantages
They are a little uncomfortable when you start putting them on and require the eyes to adjust to its persistent presence. Though even soft lenses need an adjustment period but it is relatively small. Now, if you wore it for long and then discontinued, it will take a fresh stretch of adjustment period for you to get properly started with it. Another disadvantage is that it may slip away from the center of the eye at times, and may cause blurred vision occasionally. So, it's pretty much a mixed bag. Choose, if its pluses outweigh its minuses for you.