ShopForLenses - Contact Lens History

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The Birth of Contact Lenses (A Brief History of Contact Lenses)

You will be surprised to find out that the Italian inventor, artist and scientist Leonardo da Vinci is the one who in 1508 sketches and describes several forms of contact lenses. The first lenses actually manufactured were heavy glass lenses that covered the entire eye and could be tolerated for only a few hours of wear. These were known as scleral lenses and were used to correct nearsightedness and farsightedness.

Because these lenses couldn't be tolerated for a long time in 1948 a Californian optician named Kevin Touhy began manufacturing the first contact lenses made entirely of plastic. Later the same year, George Butterfield an Oregon optometrist improved Touhy's invention by adding flatter peripheral curves to the lens so it more closely matched the shape of the cornea and would not pop off so easily. During the years these plastic lenses were made smaller and thinner developing into hard lenses that are still worn today.

But a major progress in the filed of contact lenses was the production of the “soft” contact lens material in Czechoslovakia by Otto Wichterle and Drahoslav Lim. In 1961 using his son's erector set and parts from a bicycle Dr. Wichterle created the first spin-casting machine which le later used in the production of the world's first soft contact lenses.

Soft contact lenses were first introduced in the United States in 1971 by Bausch and Lomb. As these lenses were thinner and more comfortable more and more people began to use them and today we may say that 90% of the contact lenses sold in the United States are soft ones.
As the contact lens industry was developing really fast in 1978 the first Toric soft contact lenses were manufactured for the correction of astigmatism. In this same year, the first silicone acrylate rigid gas permeable (RGP) lenses appeared. These lenses combined the hard lens capability to correct astigmatism with the gas permeable quality of soft lenses.

The contact lens market changed dramatically during the years as people get used to wearing lenses. In 1981 the first contact lenses for overnight wear were introduced. During the years 1981-1984 CibaVision introduced two new types of contact lenses, bifocal soft contact lenses (BiSoft) and tinted soft contact lenses (SoftColors). In 1987 a major development occurred with the introduction of disposable soft contact lenses (Acuvue® by Vistakon). Later this year disposable soft contact lenses were introduced, along with soft contact lenses to change eye color.

The early 1990's brought some major changes regarding contact lenses. Two new types of lenses were introduced, daily wear and two-week replacement lenses. The first disposable soft contact lenses with an ultra-violet light absorber were presented in the U.S in 1996. On October 12, 2001 FDA approved the manufacturing of some special contact lenses for extended wear and continuous wear up to 30 nights. These lenses are made from a new, fluro-silicone hydrogel material that supplies 40 percent more oxygen than it was recognized by independent researchers for overnight wear of lenses. With the help of contact lenses a huge number of medical problems were solved over the past decades and people got used to wearing them as they offer many advantages over eyeglasses.

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