Cheap Contact Lenses

Browse Lenstore.co.uk's cheap contact lenses.

Contact lenses are today known as comfortable, cheap devices placed on the cornea for the improvement of vision, but their journey to this point has been both long and complex. Taking an idea first developed by Leonardo da Vinci in 1508 further, Rene Descartes filled a glass tube with liquid in 1636, placing it on the cornea. While the devices appeared to correct vision, they made blinking impossible.

A couple of versions of so called eye cups and jelly-filled glass capsules later, at the very end of the 19th century, a German physiologist by the name of Adolf Eugen Fick constructed and fitted the first ever successful contact lens. He tried the afocal scleral contact shells first on rabbits, then on himself, and finally on a group of guinea pigs. The 20mm hand-blown glass contact lenses could only be worn for a few hours at a time, and needless to say, they were not cheap.

In the 1930s, plastic contact lenses were manufactured for the first time, and in 1949 the first corneal contact lenses were developed. These were smaller and could be worn for up to 16 hours per day, and in the 1960s they became the first contact lenses to have mass appeal.

The so called PMMA contact lenses had one clear disadvantage: they did not let any oxygen through to the cornea, risking a number of clinical effects. This led to the development of a number of oxygen-permeable contact lenses, which were not very different from cheap contacts as we know them today. These were initially rigid, or hard, but soft gas-permeable contact lenses soon hit the opticians’ shelves.

1999 was a big year in cheap contact lens history, as the silicone hydrogels were launched. Combining the comfort of the conventional hydrogel contact lenses with the exceptionally high oxygen-permeability of silicone, these contact lenses soon became popular for extended as well as daily wear. In contact lens research and development, high water content and oxygen-permeability are still at the top of the agenda, with Enfilcon A from CooperVision being one of the most recent additions to the list of comfortable, cheap contacts.

When there is a mismatch between the refractive power of the eye and its length, a contact lens will neutralise this error and allow for the right focusing of light onto the retina. Today, cheap contact lenses are available for the correction of most common eye conditions, such as short-sightedness, long-sightedness, astigmatism and presbyopia. Depending on the type of contact lens, the wearer may need to take their contact lenses out every night. For the correction of myopia by flattening of the cornea, however, special contact lenses can be worn overnight. This treatment is not as cheap as regular contact lens wear, and only after careful examination by an Optician can such contact lenses be prescribed.

Many people whose eye conditions can be corrected by contact lens wear find that their eye care products have many benefits. Compared to spectacles, contact lenses provide a greater field of vision and are less affected by weather conditions. Many people also experience a boost in self-confidence, as they prefer their appearance without glasses and find sporting and holidaying a lot easier.

In addition to increased comfort and safety, the fact that contact lenses have become significantly cheaper over the years has led to a large number of former eye glass wearers turning to contact lenses. While one pair of contact lenses in the late 1980s could cost over £200, many wearers today choose to buy cheap contact lenses online, getting close to a two-year supply for that same price. With roughly 30% of wearers buying cheap contacts online, Sweden is in the lead of this relatively young industry. Canada, the United States and Germany follow closely at around 20%, while UK contact lens wearers have been slow to pick up on the fact that contact lenses are a lot cheaper if purchased online.

Though most of the 125 million contact lens wearers worldwide need their contact lenses for vision correction, some users wear tinted or coloured contacts purely for cosmetic reasons. Coloured contact lenses are made from the same comfortable materials as corrective contact lenses, and they are available from cheap online suppliers both with and without power.

The age of online shopping has led to a number of additions to the Opticians Act. The viewpoint seems to be that competition brings down prices, which allows contact lens wearers to buy their contact lenses much cheaper, but as medical devices these products need to be supplied responsibly. To regulate this trade, Opticians are now obliged to provide a copy of patients’ contact lens prescriptions upon completion of a check-up, and cheap contact lens suppliers must check prescriptions before supplying a customer with contact lenses.

The lack of responsibility amongst a few online contact lens suppliers has created the widespread misconception that cheap contact lenses are of inferior quality to those supplied by high street Opticians. However, the cheap contact lenses supplied by online retailers are of the same brand and quality as those on sale at any Optician, and only by switching contact lens brands or ordering contact lenses without a valid prescription can the safety of the wearer be jeopardised.

It is unlikely that Leonardo da Vinci could have imagined that his Codex of the eye, Manual D. would be the clue to the medical device that would one day serve millions of people with improved vision, as all he wanted was to understand the mechanisms of the eye. But it seems that, as the versatile botanist, scientist and anatomist that he was, we have a lot to thank the Mona Lisa painter for. Then again, would everyone be able to admire his works if it wasn't for the perfect vision offered by cheap contact lenses?