Acuvue Contact Lenses

Silicone Hydrogel contact lenses are here to stay. These super-permeable contact lenses allow the transmission of unprecedented amounts of oxygen to the cornea. Previous spectacle wearers have found these lenses more comfortable and wearable than their previous versions. Silicone Hydrogel has made contact lenses available to patients that could not comfortably wear contact lenses in the past. This has opened a new market to Eye Care Professionals and it is up to ECPs to stake their claim.

The current brands of silicone hydrogel lenses available are:
· Ciba Focus Night & Day which is approved for 30 day continuous wear.
· Vistakon’s Acuvue Oasys which is approved for 2 week daily wear use or 6 night extended wear and is designed to be more moist than the others and is therefore beneficial for people who have dry eyes.
· Ciba’s O2 Optix which is approved for 6 days continuous wear or 2 weeks daily wear.
· Bausch & Lomb’s PureVision which is approved for 30 days continuous wear.
· Vistakon Acuvue Advance is a 2 week disposable.

There are also currently two toric (astigmatism correcting) silicone hydrogel lenses on the market:
· Bausch & Lomb PureVision Toric is a silicone hydrogel toric lens approved for 30 days extended wear use.
· Acuvue Advance For Astigmatism – currently approved as a 2 week daily wear lens. The only made to order custom lens was recently launched by Ciba vision.
· Ciba’s O2 Optix Custom, which is new to the market and the only made to order silicone hydrogel available to date.