Commentary by Jeremy Ciano
Have you ever been told, “You really aren’t a good candidate for contact lenses because you have an astigmatism?” Or maybe you’ve been told you need bifocals. Even worse, have you had to deal with monovision to compensate for either of these vision difficulties? That all has been solved.
For decades, vision specialists have had contact lenses to correct patients with an astigmatism. For decades, technology for contact lenses has been used for bifocals. However, until now, there hasn’t been technology to correct both at the same time.
Simply put, astigmatism is a term that describes the “football shape” of the eye. Bifocals or multifocals are used to help patients see far away and up close. We have had wonderful technologies in each of these individual contact-lens categories, but never have we had both technologies blended together in one contact lens. To compensate, we would have to fit patients with the best available option, monovision. This is where we would set one eye to see well far away and one eye to see well up close. It works OK, but patients lose depth perception and there is visual compromise at all distances. Unfortunately, it was the best specialists could do with the technology available.
Welcome to the most modern breakthrough in contact-lens technology in an extremely long time: Soft, disposable multifocal contacts that also correct for astigmatism. No longer do specialists have to compensate a patient’s visual dynamics. No longer do they have to compromise distance and reading correction. No longer do they have to tell patients, “You just aren’t a good candidate.”
We have been honored to be one of the very first optometric practices in the nation to have a full-fitting set with this dynamic new contact-lens technology, and patients’ results have been spectacular.
So, if you are seeing like a cyclops and would rather step up to modern technology where you can use both eyes together with crisp, clear vision that corrects for your astigmatism as well as your bifocals, now you can.
