Firm vs. Soft
Firm
Advantages
- Generally excellent acuity (sight/clear vision)
- Tends to hold prescription
- Material lasts for years
- Cleaning is simple
- No significant difference in wet or dry climates
Considerations
- Takes a couple weeks for your eyes to adapt
- Vulnerable to reflections
- May pop out or move during activity
- Dust and dirt can get trapped under lens and irritate eye
Soft
Advantages
- Virtually no sensation in eye
- About a week to adapt, wearing time lenient
- Good night vision
- Unlikely to pop out or slide off
- Many tinting options
Considerations
- Acuity (sight/clear vision) fair to as good as glasses
- Prescription may change
- Some substances may be difficult to remove when cleaning
- May be less comfortable in dry climates
Disposables
FreshLens System daily wear contact lenses are safe and excellent if carefully managed by the Doctor and the patient. We are both responsible for your sight, and that is why we strictly adhere to the FreshLens System daily wear recommendations of the FDA, AOA, and AMA.
Helpful Hint: let the lenses dry out for 30 – 60 seconds before you try to insert them into your eyes.
One-day contact lenses
Put a fresh pair on in the morning and throw them away at night. No cleaning, no storing, no enzyming….just convenient.
The cost is about the same as a cup of coffee or the newspaper. As low as $.88 per use. No solutions. No insurances.
Disposable Daily Wear
Daily Wear lenses are put in each morning and taken out each night for a maximum of 2 weeks and then the lenses are disposed of.
We suggest that Daily Wear users change their lenses on the 1st and 15th of each month and be checked once a year, to evaluate eye health and the performance of the lenses.
Extended Wear
Extended wear lenses are can be slept in nightly for 1 week and then disposed of.
It is important that extended wear lenses are left out for at least 18 hours per week. With these lenses, we reccomend being seen 4 times a year, to evaluate your eye health and the performance of the lenses,
How can I get my lenses on quickly each time?
Take your lenses out of the case and let dry 30-60 seconds, so they can attain some body and go on easily.
If I want to take my Extended Wear lenses out for a night during the week, what should I do?
You must clean and disinfect with OPTI-FREE Express. Otherwise you are taking a dirty contaminated lens from your eye and putting it in a “incubator” (your case). It is dark, warm and moist, and you will grow bacteria and viruses. So always clean and disinfect.
What solutions should I use with my FreshLens Contact Lenses?
For most of our soft contact lens wearers, we recommend using the Clear Care cleaning & disinfecting system and Aerosol Saline. Most of the other contact lens systems on the market contain some type of preservatives. Over time, preservatives can accumulate in your lenses and irritate your eyes. The Clear Care system and Aerosol Saline is unique in that it is an excellent cleaning and disinfecting system without containing any preservatives.
Find out what contacts are best for you!
Bifocal Contact Lenses
The normal progression of gaining wisdom and being chronologically gifted presents challenges to the eyes that we need to resolve. Needing some assistance for reading is one of those issues.
The first is that you become aware that small reading material is harder to see.
This progresses to a point that, to perform near tasks, you will need some assistance. You especially notice this when you are tired, later in the day, if you have a lot of near tasks, poor lighting (fine restaurants), and poor print quality. It then makes sense to use some form of reading glasses to assist you during this 10-20% of your reading time.
This will progress over the next 6-24 months. It may be time to consider the next choice as the need for reading glasses increases to a point that you wonder why you should be using both contacts and glasses so much. That is when it is time to consider the next choice.
If you are currently a successful contact lens wearer, you will not have to give up your contact lenses because of this change. The process of not being able to read at a near distance slowly increases. At that point, there are some normal and logical stages to realize, understand and go through to successfully maintain clear and comfortable near vision.
Bifocal contact lenses come in both firm and soft types. These are sophisticated processes and designs.
Another alternative is a technique called MonoVision. This unique method can provide a direct answer to the problem of reading with contact lenses. By fitting one eye for near vision and the other eye for far vision, a bifocal type system provides a convenient answer. We will gladly set up this system so you may see how and if this would be a good answer for you. If it does give you a great answer, it is the easiest, most convenient, and economical answer, and you will be very happy contact lens wearer for years.
Custom Scleral Lenses
Who can benefit from Scleral Lenses?
You! When your prescription can NOT be fully corrected because of conditions like Keratoconus, Irregular Astigmatism, and High Astigmatism.
For Eye Diseases that affect the front of your eyes; such as Extreme Dry Eyes, Sjogren’s Symptom, Exposure from lid malfunctions and retractions (Grave’s (Thyroid Eye Disease)), Exposure Keratitis, Post Herpetic scars.
Post-Surgical Concerns/Complications; Corneal Transplants,
Post RK, PRK, LASIK, Lid surgeries. Injuries from Trauma and Chemical Burns.
Athletes and Professions that must work in dust.
Scleral Lenses help by acting as a moisture chamber that bathes the cornea while the lens rides on a bed of saline and providing a smooth clear contact lens front surface to provide maximum sight.
What our patients are saying:
Dr Baron and the staff at Golden Vision clinic have spent the last 15 years successfully fitting contacts to my eyes despite the challenges my eyes produce. The best solution to attaining comfort and vision has changed, and over the years I have worn virtually every combination and type of contact. Recently I have had a cornea transplant and now have stitches in place. Dr Baron was able to quickly design and fit a scleral lens over the cornea and stitches and I couldn’t be happier. Uncompromised comfort and vision.
PS (Transplanted Keratoconic)
I have enjoyed working with Dr. Baron and the entire team at Golden Vision Clinic for three main reasons.
One, they have made me feel like part of the family and team. They did this by, two, letting me be a part of my treatment. They listened to my concerns and my ideas and took them in to consideration to help me with my contacts and eye issues.
The third part is the strongest reason I have enjoyed working with the team. They have continued to stay on a problem until a solution was found. Then when the next issue arose they did the same thing again and again. They did not give up and because of that I can see much better now.
DA (Ectatic Post LASIK)
I have keratoconus and used to wear rigid gas permeable (RGP) contact lenses piggy-backed on soft lenses. Although my vision was better with the hard contacts than it was with just glasses, I found them to be very uncomfortable and would often get air bubbles between the lenses. After having cross-linking surgery to stop the progression of my keratoconus, I began the process of being fitted for scleral lenses. While it was a lengthy process that required many adjustments to get the fit just right, I find the scleral lenses to be very comfortable and my vision is very good. After getting used to putting in and taking out the scleral lenses, I now find that they are easier than the RGP lenses.
JL (Cross Linked Keratoconic)
Once Dr. Baron helped my husband with his contacts and he was able to see again it added another year on to his life! A happy year at that. He was very depressed and you helping him with his vision made him love life again.
He always looked forward to his visits here and the staff always made him feel good about himself.
BT (Severe Anterior Surface Decomposition)