Contact lenses?!
Question:
Contact lenses?
My daughter has astigmatism in her vision and we are trying to switch to contacts instead of glasses. The eye doctor told us that gas permiable lenses would work best for her and I am wondering if anyone wears soft lenses that has astigmatism. Tell me what to do please...gas permiable are expensive and you only get one pair....daughter is 13 and that worries me a bit.
Answers:
It depends on how much astigmatism she has and where the source of it is. Most astigmatism comes from the shape of the cornea (being more oval shaped than round). If it is too oval shaped (too much astigmatic power), a soft lens will not sit still on her eye, and torics (astigmatism contacts) have to sit very still to work. So....if she has a lot of astigmatism, she may have no option but to wear a lens called a gas permeable bitoric, which just refers to the shape of the lens to hold it still.
Most successful gas permeable lens fits depend on the patient's motivation to wear the lenses. Since she's 13, she may not like the comfort of them at first. It's like putting a rock in your eye, but she'll get used to it. On the other hand, soft lenses are much more comfortable (and cheaper) if she is able to wear them.
So....what I would do as a doc would be 1)try to get her in a very oxygen permeable soft contact like PureVision Torics or SofLens66 Torics. 2)If there's too much power, try to get her in a soft lens called a Frequency 55XR. 3)Try a spherical gas perm. 4)Do a toric/bitoric gas perm if I had to.
Hope that helps. Just takes practice and responsibility.