Eye Fashion Trends Shifting Toward Colored Contact Lenses

It is a fact that women spend substantial amounts of money on eye shadows, eyeliners, false eyelashes and mascara. Recently, this trend has been shifting to having their eye care professionals prescribe colored contact lenses. Women are getting prescriptions for different colors and changing their looks dramatically. Commonly known as cosmetic contact lenses, these colored lenses are intended to change the appearance of the eye. These lenses are also manufactured in various powers so they can be used to correct vision problems should this be necessary. For the adventurous spirit or for someone in the mood for a style change colored contact lenses might just be the option for you.
Think about how many times you have walked into your favorite department store and strolled up to your favorite cosmetics counter be it, Clinique, Estée Lauder, Elizabeth Arden, Lancôme or any number of other cosmetic sellers. The beauticians are prepped to sell you more than you need and the “best” eye makeup products. The fortunate shoppers might make it out of there with bills of between $100-$200. If you are lucky, you might even qualify for one of those snazzy bonus gift bags full of sample products.
For less money than you would spend at your favorite beauty counter, you can visit an eye care professional and be fitted with colored contact lenses. He/she should have trials available for you to try in the colors that you like. Once you have made your decision just ask him/her for a prescription for each of the colors you want to purchase. Remember contact lenses are considered to be a medical device and therefore a prescription from your eye care practitioner is necessary to purchase them. Don’t get lured to a colored lens display in your local beauty salon. Such dispensing options are illegal and do not provide for the proper assurances that your eye care practitioner can give you once he/she has determined that your lenses are well fitted.
There are two types of colored contact lenses – enhancers and opaque. Enhancer lenses merely accentuate your natural eye color while opaque lenses will change your eye color completely. These medical devices need to be cared for and cleaned regularly.
· Always wash your hands before handling your lenses.
· Regularly clean your contact lenses.
· Store your contact lenses in a clean lens case.
· Do not reuse the contact lens solution you used to disinfect your lenses. Always use fresh solution to ensure maximum efficacy in disinfection.
· Do not use tap water for hydration, rewetting or during the lens cleaning process.
· Definitely do not use your saliva to rewet your lenses.

Now that you have your prescription and lens care instructions it is time to shop online for the best deals when replacing your favorite colored lenses. Remember that most lenses are sold in a 6-pack so avoid sites that are willing to sell you only 2 lenses. Shopping for contact lenses online can be tricky. Low prices per box are great but definitely check on the shipping fees as well so that you can calculate your true cost. Many places only offer free shipping after you have spent over a certain amount on their site. In no time at all you will have a whole new look for a fraction of what it would have cost at the department store beauty counter.
Below are just a few links that allow you to see the various colors available.

http://www.contactlensking.com/freshlookdimensions.aspx
http://www.contactlensking.com/freshlookcolorblends.aspx
http://www.contactlensking.com/expressions.aspx
http://www.contactlensking.com/focus1to2weeksoftcolors.aspx

Presbyopia and Baby Boomers

There are almost 78 million baby boomers that are either currently experiencing vision difficulties in reading. Some are about to experience this very shortly. What is common to all is that they will come to know the world of presbyopia. This vision phenomenon eventually expresses itself with everyone on or about the age of 35 years. It is caused by the aging process as it relates to the natural eye lens and the muscle structure that assists it in the process of accommodation. This process is what normally allows for one’s ability to seamlessly see distant, intermediate, and near objects. Suddenly the newspaper or your favorite book becomes much more difficult to read at your usual reading distance. You find yourself stretching out your arms as far as possible to read. Then suddenly your arms are not long enough and you become frustrated because you can no longer read clearly.
If you have been a contact lens wearer for the past few years you will surely seek out a contact lens solution option instead of the usual pair of half eyes. This is when being well informed can be important. There are several options for you to consider. These include monovision, adapted monovision and multifocal lenses. Monovision is a fitting practice that uses vision principles normally used by the human brain when coordinating vision. The brain works with the principal that one of our eyes functions as our distance vision instrument while the other eye functions as the near vision and/or reading instrument. In reality neither handles that particular category of vision alone but weighs its functionality mostly on distance or near vision. All other vision, or fields of focus, is handled in varying degrees by both eyes, and when used together, or stereoscopically, the net result is excellent vision.
When considering contact lenses as a solution to presbyopia eye doctors prescribe one lens with a distance correction in one eye and another lens prescribed for reading in the other eye. Once again, stereoscopically the net result does provide for good visual acuity. However when lighting decreases as one may experience in a poorly lit room, a romantic restaurant setting or while driving at night, certain limitations of the monovision method will become apparent. In low light settings the pupil dialates to collect as much light as possible. In doing so each of the eyes will perform better for distance or for near vision. Intermediate vision diminishes enough to result in an effective loss of depth of field and contrast. Some patients can adapt to this but others elect to limit their wear of monovision based lens solutions to day light conditions.
Adapted monovision is a fitting method used by eye doctors who fit multifocal lenses but on the principle of classic monovision. By doing so they attempt to optimize upon the optical designs of the multifocal lens to maximize on the reading or distance vision that can be attained by the lens fit. The intermediate vision is guaranteed by the engineering design of the intermediate optical zone in each of the lenses on the respective eye. So in essence the eye doctor is optimizing the lens design characteristics to their fullest. No loss of contrast or depth of field is experienced with this method.
Multifocal lenses fitted in the classic method simply get fitted according to the prescription power requirement of each eye. The reading vision is in the center of the lens and various other fields of vision extending to the distance vision are achieved by way of the different concentric circles of powers within the lens design from the center out to the periphery of the zone of optics. No loss of contrast or depth of field is experienced with this method.
In all cases however it is your eye doctor who can best assess the lens type and fit that would work best for you. Ask your eye doctor if any of the above options will work for you.

Most of us have heard that eating carrots is good for your eyesight. While this is true, a balanced nutritional diet is essential to your eye health. Vitamins A, C, & E are very important to your vision well being as are lutein, fatty acids and zinc. Vision Care for life presents a very comprehensive article that is recommended reading in order to learn the proper nutrients your body needs to maintain optimum vision health. You can read that article here: http://tiny.cc/OwQEb