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.

Whenever they hear the words “Rigid Gas Permeable”, most people think “hard contact lenses”, confusing RGP lenses with PMMS - hard lenses of the previous generation. RGP are made from a different type of plastic, which makes them more flexible than hard lenses. And their most important feature is high oxygen permeability.

Soft contact lenses came out in the 1970s and were a great relief to many hard contact lens wearers. These early lenses were for daily wear only and still did not let a lot of oxygen into the eye. In the 80?s, gas permeable lenses were invented which gave the eye more breathing room.

It can never be denied that the regular soft is more famous than gas permeable contact lens. The reason is that this ocular aid is not that easy to wear so there is a call to adapt in a longer period. However, this kind of tint has several benefits such as the stiff component it is constructed of. Even when you do countless eye movements, it will still retain its contour due to its facet of crispiness.

RGP are very good for correcting high degree of astigmatism and presbyopia. They are also the only lenses for some eye diseases, like keratoconus. RGP lenses are more resistant to protein and lipid deposits. This is especially important for people with high protein secretions

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.