CONTACTS GO PIGGY-BACK
 In some special cases for the more complex prescriptions we utilise a rather novel technique of fitting a rigid gas permeable lens on top of a soft lens!
This allows greater comfort than may be possible with an RGP lens alone but, at the same time, can superior vision than may be achieved with a soft lens by itself. With 30-Day Sleep In lenses it is possible for just the gas permeable lens on top to have to be removed each night.
Not an everyday fitting procedure by any means but one useful in extremely complex situations especially for patients with pathological eye conditions.
COMBINED SOFT/RIGID GAS PERMEABLE LENSES
In the mid 80's the first attempts at making lenses with a solid Rigid Gas Permeable centre and surrounding soft 'skirt' were made. Initially the concept seemed brilliant matching the comfort of a soft edge with the superior optics of a rigid centre. The first lens design was called Saturn for obvious reasons and was hailed by its manufacturers as an incredible br eak through. Whilst it gave reasonable results the term 'breakthrough' was perhaps appropriate since all too often the skirt detached from the centre rigid portion - so Saturn quietly set on the horizon for a period!
Saturn rose again a few years later now with the reassuring new name, 'Saturn 2', designed to convince practitioners this was a brand new lens with all its old problems solved! Unfortunately this was not to be so once again we lost sight of this potentially useful 'heavenly' body.
In its latest resurrection it is now available under the completely new name of SoftPerm - perhaps the manufacturers thought Saturn 3 was pushing it a bit!
SoftPerm is a much improved lens design and does have considerable value in certain special circumstances. Its principle advantage is better comfort than an RGP lens matched to the better optical efficiency sometimes only obtainable with a rigid centre optical zone. For a patient who previously could not tolerate an RGP lens but for whom there are visual or rejection difficulties with conventional soft lenses SoftPerm can be the answer!
For details of a new Combi soft/rigid lens, SynergEYES go to.
http://www.synergeyes.com/patient.html
Like all the other specialist lenses we fit it is a simple matter of fact that, 'the more arrows we have to our bow' the more patients we can satisfactorily fit! Which is just another reason why so many patients are referred to us by Opticians who do not specialise but, recognise the limitations of the basic 'off the peg' brands which the fit! |
