Eye & Contact Lens Factsheets

YEARLY WEAR SOFT & FLEXIBLE GAS PERMEABLE LENS (RIGID) LIFE SPANS.

We describe 'yearly wear lenses' as those which are not daily disposable or do not have a planned replacement cyle. They are most often prescribed today for complex prescriptions out of range of standard disposable types and are very often 'hand made specials'.

Such lenses do however suffer from deterioration in material quality, shape changes and, not least, deposition of proteins and absorption of other foreign contaminants just the same as frequently replaced lenses.

Because of their intrinsically higher manufacturing costs, by advocating the most stringent cleaning and disinfection regimes, we try to make such lenses last as long as is safe and acceptable clinically. However with all lenses there always comes a time when they no longer allow enough oxygen and or tears to the cornea either potentially, or actually, causing eye damage.

Our advice regarding the life of Soft lenses, assuming careful handling by the wearer, is replacement every 12 months before, because of natural wear, they need to be discarded. They should be called "yearly replacement lenses."

For Rigid Gas Permeable lenses a life expectancy of 18 months to 2 years should be considered the safe maximum before replacements are required.

At the end of the lenses life we always check the fitting and powers carefully before ordering new ones. We nearly always find that changes to the fit or prescription are necessary in order to keep them in 'tip top' condition to ensure that you safely continue to enjoy the best vision and comfort.

You should never continue wearing lenses if they are close to, or past their safe life, since the disturbance that can be caused to the eyes can put at risk your future ability to continue wearing contact lenses. There is one added bonus replacing lenses 'in time'. If you keep the originals stored safely then, in an emergency, you could fall back on for just for a few hours a day should you lose or damaged one of your current lenses.

PLEASE NOTE: Should we advise a change of lenses to be clinically necessary we will ask you to confirm this recommendation by way of your signature on your notes. This simple precaution is to confirm that you have understood our advice in case of any future difficulties or misunderstandings.