Gas Permeable Lenses in General
Little to the knowledge of a lot of people, there is another counterpart of regular soft tints available in the market. As they say, gas permeable contact lenses are kind of low- profile because only a handful have been patronizing such. This ocular aid is rigid but it should not be confused with the “hard ones″ that rose to fame in the second World War.
Most people today don?t realize that the wearing of contact lenses dates back to just after WWII. Back then contacts were made of a rigid or hard material called PMMA and were refered to as ?hard contact lenses?. These contacts didn?t allow much oxygen to pass through which made them very uncomfortable and actually rather unhealthy for the eye.
Gas permeable contact lenses are actually not novel in the industry as they were launched in late 1970′s. However, this ocular aid is much newer than the regular soft. Most of this kind of tints is integrated with a comfortable plastic known as silicone. The mentioned element is porous to oxygen where the aftermath is healthier vision, avoidance to deposits and better durability.
RGP contacts don’t contain any water, so they don’t dry out. RGP is ideal for people who work in the dry conditions or outside, in the wind. RGP can also benefit computer users, since people blink less often, when working at the computer, and their eyes can become dry. If you wear soft lenses and your eyes feel dry by the end of the day, consider RGP - they don’t suck moisture from your eyes and feel comfortable even at the end of the day.
Another advantage of RGP contact lenses is that they are resistant to protein buildup. Anyone who has worn contacts knows how the protein deposits can make the lenses uncomfortable so this is a boon. This also makes them more durable than regular soft lenses. Although you can?t really see the protein buildup when you look at the lens, it does make a difference to your clarity when you look through the lens so the RGP lenses may even help you see better!
RGP lenses are quite pricey. But when consider that RGP lenses usually last for 2-3 years, the overall cost isn’t so high. You would spend much more replacing soft contact lenses every 2 weeks. A concept of a rigid lens being in your eye scares most people, because they don’t believe that such a lens can be comfortable. But in fact it is - people who wear RGP contact lenses report that a minute after they put the lens in they feel like there is nothing in their eyes.
