Many people wear glasses for years unaware that they are suitable for contact lenses. Wearing contact lenses doesn’t necessarily mean you never wear glasses again – contacts can be a part-time alternative.
Contact lenses available at Custom Eyecare
- Soft contact lenses including monthly, fortnightly, daily disposables, extended wear (overnight contact lenses), monovision and multifocal contact lenses
- Rigid contact lenses for myopia, hyperopia, astigmatism, keratoconus, corneal grafts, corneal scarring and previous eye injuries
- Hybrid and scleral contact lenses for keratoconus, corneal grafts and corneal scarring
- Orthokeratology contact lenses for myopia control in children as as a surgery free alternative to laser surgery for adults
- We supply all the leading brands including those made by Alcon, CooperVision, J&J Johnson & Johnson, B&L Bausch & Lomb, Capricornia, ACL Australian Contact Lenses, Gelflex, CLC Contact Lens Centre, Menicon, Boston, and others. We prescribe soft and hard lenses (RGP rigid gas permeable), disposable and non-disposable.
Soft contact lenses
These days the most popular type of contact lenses are disposable (soft) contacts. They are comfortable, easy to get used to, and suitable for occasional or regular wear. Some people might only wear them on weekends, for the occasional social activity, or the gym. Others wear them more regularly – five, six or seven days a week.
When it comes to soft contact lenses, we have access to the latest in contact lens technology, including multifocal soft contact lenses. We prescribe the best contact lens materials for your comfort. We can provide you with advice and fitting for almost any type of disposable (soft) contact lens, including monthly disposable, daily disposable, and extended or overnight wear (“sleep-in”) contact lenses.
To hear Heidi explain more about Multifocal Contact Lenses, watch this video:
Soft contact lens skills & safety
Inserting and removing contact lenses safely takes time and practice. It’s a skill we believe everyone can learn. Because we want you to succeed so we offer thorough application and removal lessons for all new contact lens wearers. Beyond providing you with competent & careful instruction on how to insert, remove and care for your lenses, we will also give you tips on how to avoid problems such as dry eye, redness, allergies, and even infections (which are rare among our patients). We use and recommend the Andrasko Staining Grid to ensure that your lenses and disinfecting solution are actually compatible with each other.
For more about the Importance of Caring for Contact Lenses, watch this video:
Types of Soft Disposable Contact Lenses
Soft contact lenses are available in monthly, fortnightly or daily disposable formats. Monthly disposable may be worn continuous wear (‘sleep-in’) or day wear (remove & clean every night). Daily disposables are only worn once and then thrown away, so each day you are applying a fresh sterile lens to the eyes surface. They fact they are discarded at the end of the day means they are beautifully comfortable as they don’t attract deposits and buildup over time, and they can be manufactured to be very thin, as a daily lens doesn’t have to be durable enough to cope with the daily cleaning regime of reusable contact lenses.
Here’s Wes and Heidi explaining more about Kids and Contact Lenses:
Daily Disposable Contact Lenses Newcastle
There are several daily disposable soft contact lenses on the market today, but at Custom Eyecare we have a favourite! It’s DAILIES TOTAL1® by Alcon.
Why we love daily contact lenses:
- They are the ultimate in comfort. This comfort comes as a daily lens is manufactured thinner, as they don’t have to be durable enough to cope with an end-of-day cleaning regime.
- They are safe. You are far less likely to have a red sore eye wearing a daily disposable contact lens compared to a reusable soft lens. Being thinner, the lens material allows more oxygen to pass through and nourish the cornea underneath.
- They are hygienic. There is less risk of infection as you apply a brand new, fresh, sterile lens each day. As they don’t require cleaning, you also don’t have to worry about toxic or preservative reactions to any cleaning products.
- They are convenient. You simply discard after use, and you don’t have the hassle of cleaning at the end of each day, or buying cleaning products.
So what makes DAILIES TOTAL1® special?
DAILIES TOTAL1® is a daily disposable water gradient contact lens, making it an exceptional material.
As the world’s first and only water gradient contact lens, this means the water content of the material varies from the core to the surface. The inner portion of each contact lens has low water content, excellent oxygen transmission (the amount of oxygen molecules that are capable of passing through the lens material), low dehydration and easy handling.
The water content increases as we get to the lens surface, making the surface biocompatible, highly wettable, deposit resistant and beautifully nice and slippery.
Both the front and back of the contact lens have this ultrasoft surface gel, which has a microscopic brush-like structure, similar anatomically to the corneal epithelium microvilli. This binds water to the surface of the lens helping to lock in moisture giving comfortable wear all day long.
There are a few little tips with this lens material that you need to know. Firstly, because the lens is so beautiful and slippery it’s imperative that you have very dry hands to remove the lens from the surface of the eye. Wet slippery fingers will not be able to get a grip on a slippery contact lens! And secondly, it’s best to slide the lens down onto the white of the eye prior to removal. As the whites of our eyes are flatter than the corneal surface, the lens itself will then wrinkle slightly making it easier to remove.
You will enjoy wearing DAILIES TOTAL1® contact lenses. We keep some boxes of these contact lenses in stock as they are so popular!
If you are a little bit interested in finding out more about DAILIES TOTAL1® or any soft contact lenses but aren’t sure how you’d go, you can easily try a pair of comfortable disposable soft contact lenses at the end of your eye examination for a few minutes. We’ll put them in and take them out for you. There’s no obligation or additional fee, but it’s an easy way to have a quick “taste test” of contact lenses without making a commitment. If this interests you, be sure to ask your optometrist at the start of your consultation.
Rigid contact lenses
Aside from soft contact lenses, our Optometrists also have the necessary equipment and knowledge to offer you RGP (Rigid Gas Permeable) contact lenses.
Rigid contact lenses are the result of decades of development & technology improvements from what used to be known as “hard lenses”. Whilst the fitting process is more challenging for optometrists, they are usually easier to handle than soft lenses, great for people with big fingers or poor dexterity. They are particularly suitable for people with astigmatism, high hyperopia (longsightedness), high myopia (short-sightedness), dry eye, allergies, corneal injuries or scars, or difficult contact lens fitting conditions such as keratoconus and pellucid marginal degeneration (PMD).
Studies show that RGP contact lenses have among the lowest rate of complications, such as infections and other problems, of any contact lens type. They do take a few more days to get used to initially than soft lenses, but for some people their advantages are clear. See www.contactlenses.org for more information on RGP lenses.
We have a reputation for our skill in fitting soft contact lenses, orthokeratology contact lenses and specialty contact lenses for keratoconus, corneal grafts and scarring using corneal, and custom designed rigid contact lenses (RGPs), scleral & hybrid contact lenses. Our optometrists are all members of the Cornea and Contact Lens Society of Australia and have lectured all across Australia to educate other optometrists on the best protocols for fitting contact lenses.
