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Silicone hydrogels: the lens of the future
Barry Weissman, OD, PhD, FAAO, Co-editor
CL Commentary
Silicone Hydrogels: The Lens of the Future
Several years ago, a prominent contact lens academic pontificated something along the line of “silicone contact lenses are the lenses of the future and always will be. . .”. He was right. And welcome to the future. Just like George Orwell’s novel “1984” slipped from the future to our past, and the movie “2001: A Space Odyssey” is now in some ways a retroview, so too the silicone contact lens may now be considered by some to be off of our “future” list. Silicone hydrogel contact lenses are now here, offering dramatically enhanced oxygen permeability. These lenses are now sitting there in their blister packs by your examination chair, ready for your use with your
patients. To those of us intimately involved in the oxygen foot race of the past 30 years, this indeed is science fiction-like, a true breakthrough. (And while we have “entered the future” with silicone hydrogels, I must say that rigid gas permeable materials will still be necessary for many special situations, especially those where corneal irregularity must be optically managed.) What are the promises of the silicone hydrogel class of contact lens material? Freedom, at least in daily wear designs, from corneal hypoxic concerns. Toric lenses in particular should be much more physiologically tolerated. And soft lenses can be made thicker so that patients can more eas-
ICLC, Vol. 27, 2000 © Elsevier Science Inc. 2002 360 Park Avenue South, New York, NY 10010
ily handle them without sacrificing oxygen transmissibility. Combining this development with those in manufacturing over the past several decades should lead to contact lenses which can be applied to almost every normal eye. These new materials may also be placing within our grasp what another pundit of our contact lens world has termed the “holy grail” of contact lens wear: extended wear as safe as hydrogel daily wear. Read on to learn what we know about silicone hydrogels in this special issue of ICLC. And please feel free to share your observations and research with these contact lenses as we embark upon this new era.
0892-8967/02/$–see front matter PII S0892-8967(02)00072-X
CL Commentary
Silicone Hydrogels: The Lens of the Future
Several years ago, a prominent contact lens academic pontificated something along the line of “silicone contact lenses are the lenses of the future and always will be. . .”. He was right. And welcome to the future. Just like George Orwell’s novel “1984” slipped from the future to our past, and the movie “2001: A Space Odyssey” is now in some ways a retroview, so too the silicone contact lens may now be considered by some to be off of our “future” list. Silicone hydrogel contact lenses are now here, offering dramatically enhanced oxygen permeability. These lenses are now sitting there in their blister packs by your examination chair, ready for your use with your
patients. To those of us intimately involved in the oxygen foot race of the past 30 years, this indeed is science fiction-like, a true breakthrough. (And while we have “entered the future” with silicone hydrogels, I must say that rigid gas permeable materials will still be necessary for many special situations, especially those where corneal irregularity must be optically managed.) What are the promises of the silicone hydrogel class of contact lens material? Freedom, at least in daily wear designs, from corneal hypoxic concerns. Toric lenses in particular should be much more physiologically tolerated. And soft lenses can be made thicker so that patients can more eas-
ICLC, Vol. 27, 2000 © Elsevier Science Inc. 2002 360 Park Avenue South, New York, NY 10010
ily handle them without sacrificing oxygen transmissibility. Combining this development with those in manufacturing over the past several decades should lead to contact lenses which can be applied to almost every normal eye. These new materials may also be placing within our grasp what another pundit of our contact lens world has termed the “holy grail” of contact lens wear: extended wear as safe as hydrogel daily wear. Read on to learn what we know about silicone hydrogels in this special issue of ICLC. And please feel free to share your observations and research with these contact lenses as we embark upon this new era.
0892-8967/02/$–see front matter PII S0892-8967(02)00072-X