Contact Lenses

Contact lenses are available to correct short and long sightedness, as well as astigmatism and presbyopia - the difficulty with focussing on objects that are close up that occurs naturally as our eyes get older. All of our practices are accredited as Acuvue Centres of Excellence due to our commitment to the quality of the Acuvue brand and continuing training and development of our staff. A free trial of contact lenses is available to all our patients, please ask us for more details.

Soft disposable contact lenses

These are the most common contact lenses that are being used and offer several advantages in terms of hygiene, comfort and convenience. Subject to prescription, patients are free to choose between a new lens each day, fortnight or month. The most recent innovation in soft contact lenses is the use of silicon hydrogel materials, which are more breathable than conventional lenses. This leads to greater comfort throughout the day's wear and whiter, healthier eyes at the end of the day.

Extended (overnight) wear contact lenses

Standard contact lenses aren't designed to be worn all-day, every-day, and do not allow sufficient oxygen to pass through for them to be safe for wearing while you are asleep. Extended (overnight) wear lenses are made of different materials, which help with the transport of oxygen through the lens, and can prevent problems with lens dehydration during the day. Fitting of extended wear lenses is more complicated than other lenses, and will require more visits to the practice to ensure that you are able to wear these lenses without compromising the health of your eyes. All of our Optometrists are experienced in the fitting of these lenses, and will be able to provide more information as to your suitability for them following your eye examination.

Multifocal (Varifocal) Contact Lenses

As the lens of the eye ages, we naturally begin to experience difficulty in adjusting our focus from distance to near objects. To solve this, you could of course wear reading glasses over the top of your contact lenses, but many people would view this as an unacceptable solution - after all, freedom from glasses is one of the main reasons that people choose to wear contact lenses in the first place.
To address this issue, there are a wide range of varifocal contact lens options that aim to provide functional vision both for long distance and close work tasks. More advanced lens designs are being released on a regular basis, so please ask your optometrist if you would like to try these.

Rigid Gas Permeable Lenses

As the name suggests, rigid lenses are made from a plastic that is less flexible than soft contact lenses. This makes them more durable so they require less frequent replacement, and they can also be fitted to a wider range of prescriptions. They require a little more adaptation than soft lenses, but following this they should be as comfortable as soft lenses.

We offer two methods of payment for contact lenses. Most of our patients opt for the convenience of paying for theiir lenses by monthly direct debit, where a single payment covers your annual sight test and contact lens check, a month's supply of contact lenses, any solutions that may be required plus any emergency visits or replacement lenses incase of breakages. Alternatively you may opt to join our pay as you go system, where your sight test and contact lens check up is paid for annually, and then contact lenses and solutions can be purchased as required, which works best for those patients who wear lenses infrequently.