Extended Wear Contact Lenses: Overview
The hassles of remembering to clean and take out contact lenses every night may soon be over for millions of corrective lens wearers now that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved two month-long continuous wear contact lenses. According to the FDA, CIBA Vision's Focus Night & Day and Bausch & Lomb's PureVision can be worn for 30 days straight, both night and day, without cleaning.
The industry estimates that over 12 million users will wear the contacts. Currently, the extended wear lenses are available only by prescription. Both companies hope the new lenses will provide an affordable alternative to laser surgery, which is expensive and not covered by most insurance companies.
Skeptics warn that eye infections may become a problem with the new lenses as "epidemiological studies still suggest that overnight use of a contact lens increases the risk of an eye infection." In addition, some ophthalmologists insist that the long-term effects of contact lense use are not fully understood.
-- Article Courtesy of InjuryBoard.com
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