by Joel Harrison
23. August 2010 12:07
It is estimated that 22 to 24 percent of contact lens wearers stops using them permanently. A study conducted twenty years ago suggested that their main reason for doing that was discomfort, and, in spite of all the technological advances connected with the production of contact lenses, this has not changed. Recent studies indicate that 47-55 percent of patients complain about end-of-day discomfort, which is very close to the data from the 1990s.
It may partially be explained by the fact that comfortable wearing time of most contact lenses is approximately 10 hours and the current lifestyles of most patients demand more in comparison with what was considered normal twenty years ago.
However, new materials are constantly being developed by contact lens manufacturers (here, biomimesis seems to be the most promising area of research) and most problems associated with wearing contact lenses have already been solved. The latter has been confirmed by several studies, which concluded that it is enough to refit patients (who tend to use the same types of lenses for many years) into modern, silicone hydrogel lenses to improve their end-of-day comfort substantially.
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