Contact lens care in Monbulk — from everyday lenses to advanced options
Contact lenses aren't one-size-fits-all.
At Yarra Ranges Optical, we start by understanding your eyes, your prescription and what you would like your vision to do. For many people, a modern soft contact lens provides an excellent solution. For others, astigmatism, changing near vision, myopia, an irregular cornea or a more complex prescription may mean that a different approach is worth considering.
The important thing is not to begin with a particular contact lens in mind. It is to understand you first, then consider the contact-lens options that may best suit your eyes, lifestyle and visual needs.
Soft contact lenses for everyday vision
Modern soft contact lenses provide comfortable and convenient vision for many people and are available in a wide range of prescriptions and replacement schedules.
Depending on your eyes and visual requirements, options can include daily disposable and reusable lenses, spherical lenses, toric lenses for astigmatism and multifocal lenses for people who need help with both distance and near vision.
Choosing a contact lens involves more than selecting a prescription from a box. Lens material, design, fit, comfort, ocular health and the way you use your eyes all contribute to finding an appropriate solution.
Contact lenses for astigmatism
Having astigmatism does not necessarily prevent you from wearing contact lenses.
Modern soft toric lenses can provide excellent vision for many people with astigmatism. However, higher prescriptions, less common combinations of power and astigmatism, irregular corneal shape or an unstable lens can sometimes make conventional soft lenses less satisfactory.
When that occurs, it may be worth considering other possibilities rather than simply accepting blurred or fluctuating vision.
Depending on the individual eye, these alternatives may include different soft toric designs, rigid gas permeable lenses or other specialty contact lenses.
Can I wear contact lenses after 40?
Very often, yes.
One of the most common changes after the age of 40 is presbyopia—the gradual reduction in the eye's ability to focus comfortably at near. People who have worn contact lenses successfully for years can suddenly find themselves holding their phone further away or reaching for reading glasses.
That doesn't necessarily mean giving up contact lenses.
Multifocal contact lenses
Modern multifocal contact lenses provide different optical information for distance, intermediate and near vision simultaneously. Rather than mechanically switching from one part of the lens to another, your visual system learns to select the information most useful for the task you're performing.
Think of listening to an orchestra. All the instruments are playing at the same time, but you can choose to concentrate on the violin, the oboe or the percussion while still hearing the complete piece.
Multifocal contact lenses work on a similar principle: several elements of the visual information are available simultaneously, and the brain learns to use what it needs.
There can be an adaptation period, and the goal isn't necessarily to reproduce every aspect of vision through spectacles. Instead, we work with you to find the balance of distance, intermediate and near vision that best suits your everyday life.
What about monovision?
Monovision provides another option for some people with presbyopia. Usually, one eye is principally corrected for distance and the other for nearer tasks.
Some people adapt extremely well to this arrangement; others prefer the visual experience of multifocal lenses.
There isn't one correct solution for everybody. Both approaches can be considered as part of determining what works best for your visual requirements.
Contact lenses for children and teenagers
There isn't a single age at which every child suddenly becomes ready for contact lenses.
We consider the individual young person—their visual needs, motivation, maturity, ability to handle and care for their lenses safely, activities and family support.
For some children and teenagers, contact lenses can provide an alternative to spectacles for sport and other activities. For others, contact lenses may form part of a broader approach to managing progressive myopia.
Where myopia management is the primary concern, we can discuss options including myopia-control contact lenses and orthokeratology alongside other appropriate myopia-management strategies.
Tried contact lenses before?
If you've tried contact lenses previously and stopped wearing them, it doesn't necessarily mean that contact lenses aren't for you.
The more useful question is:
Why didn't they work?
Was it discomfort or dryness?
Was your vision blurred or variable?
Did you have astigmatism and find that your vision was unstable?
Did you begin struggling with reading or computer vision?
Did you experience handling difficulties, such as inserting or removing the lenses?
Or did the particular lenses available at the time simply not provide a satisfactory solution?
Contact-lens materials and designs continue to evolve, and sometimes the eyes themselves have changed since a previous fitting. Understanding why an earlier attempt was unsuccessful gives us somewhere sensible to start.
We can't promise that another contact lens will solve every problem. But previous difficulty is a good reason to reassess the situation rather than automatically assuming that contact lenses can never work for you.
When conventional contact lenses aren't enough
For many people, modern soft contact lenses provide excellent vision and comfort. But sometimes an eye, a prescription or a particular visual requirement needs something different.
Higher or irregular astigmatism, an irregular corneal shape, keratoconus, previous corneal surgery or simply a prescription that has not performed well in conventional lenses may lead us to consider other options.
That doesn't mean beginning with the assumption that you need a complex contact lens. It means having more options available if the examination suggests they may be useful.
Rigid gas permeable contact lenses
Rigid gas permeable—or RGP—contact lenses remain an important option in modern contact-lens practice.
Unlike a soft lens, an RGP lens maintains its shape on the eye. The combination of the lens and the tear layer beneath it can provide a regular optical surface, which can be particularly useful when the shape of the cornea or the prescription makes consistently clear vision difficult to achieve with a conventional soft lens.
For some people, this can make the difference in being able to achieve particularly crisp and stable vision—sometimes providing clearer vision than is otherwise available with a conventional soft lens.
RGP lenses can be considered for a range of prescriptions, including higher or irregular astigmatism and some irregular corneal conditions. They are not necessarily the right choice for everyone, but they remain a valuable option when their particular optical properties offer an advantage.
At Yarra Ranges Optical, RGP lenses form part of the broader range of possibilities we can consider rather than being treated as either an old-fashioned lens or a solution reserved only for unusual cases.
Orthokeratology — contact lenses worn while you sleep
Orthokeratology, usually shortened to Ortho-K, uses specially designed rigid contact lenses worn overnight to temporarily alter the shape of the front surface of the cornea.
The lenses are removed after waking, with the aim of providing useful vision during the day without wearing conventional contact lenses or spectacles.
Ortho-K isn't suitable for everybody. It requires careful assessment of the eyes and corneal shape, accurate lens design, good lens handling and hygiene, and appropriate ongoing review.
For children and teenagers with progressive myopia, Ortho-K can also be considered as one of several approaches to myopia management.
Scleral and specialty contact lenses
Some eyes require a very different approach.
A scleral contact lens is a larger rigid lens that is designed to vault over the cornea and rest on the sclera—the white part of the eye. A reservoir of fluid is maintained between the lens and the corneal surface.
This creates possibilities that are quite different from those of a conventional soft contact lens.
Scleral and other specialty lenses may be considered in selected cases involving irregular corneal shape, keratoconus, high or difficult prescriptions, significant astigmatism, or situations in which satisfactory vision has been difficult to achieve with more conventional correction.
The important question remains the same:
What does this particular eye need?
Sometimes the answer will be a straightforward soft contact lens. Sometimes an RGP lens may provide the best optical solution. In other circumstances, a scleral or individually designed specialty lens may warrant consideration.
The complexity of the lens is not what matters. What matters is finding an appropriate solution for the person wearing it.
Keratoconus and irregular corneas
Keratoconus causes the cornea to become progressively thinner and change shape. As the corneal surface becomes more irregular, obtaining clear and stable vision with spectacles or conventional soft contact lenses becomes more difficult.
Other people can have irregular corneal shape for different reasons, including previous corneal disease, injury or surgery.
The appropriate visual correction depends on the individual eye.
For some people, spectacles or soft contact lenses continue to provide satisfactory vision. Others may benefit from an RGP or specialty contact lens that provides a more regular optical surface.
The starting point is therefore not simply:
“Which keratoconus lens do I need?”
It is a careful assessment of the cornea, ocular health, prescription and vision to understand what is happening and what options are reasonable.
Where the findings indicate that additional medical or surgical assessment is appropriate, this can also be discussed as part of the patient's overall care.
More than choosing a contact lens from a box
A contact-lens assessment starts with understanding the person.
What are you hoping the lenses will allow you to do? What has worked—or not worked—in the past? What does your prescription require? Are the eyes healthy? What is the shape of the cornea? And what alternatives are available?
For straightforward contact lenses, the process may be relatively simple.
For more complex prescriptions or specialty lenses, additional assessment is required. This can include detailed corneal mapping, examination of the ocular surface and assessment of how a lens interacts with the eye.
At Yarra Ranges Optical we have access to advanced diagnostic instrumentation, including corneal topography and ocular imaging, which can provide additional information where it is clinically useful.
The technology is important, but it doesn't make the decision for us. It gives us better information on which to base that decision.
What happens during a more complex contact-lens fitting?
The process will vary because the reason for fitting the lens varies.
We generally begin with a comprehensive assessment of your vision, prescription, eye health and visual requirements. Where appropriate, additional measurements such as detailed mapping of the corneal surface can then help us consider which lens designs may be suitable.
Depending on the type of lens, we may assess a trial lens on the eye or use detailed measurements to assist with the design of an individual lens.
Once a lens is on the eye, we don't assess vision alone. We also consider comfort, movement, stability and the relationship between the lens and the ocular surface. For some specialty lenses, additional imaging can help us examine that relationship in greater detail.
When an appropriate lens has been selected or manufactured, we teach you how to insert, remove and care for it safely.
And the process doesn't necessarily finish when the first lens is supplied.
More complex contact lenses may require follow-up and refinement as we learn how the lens performs during normal wear. The aim is to achieve the best practical combination of vision, comfort, fit and ocular health for the individual patient.
Advanced contact-lens training at Yarra Ranges Optical
Murray Nagle, Optometrist — CertAdvCL (ACO)
Murray has recently completed the Australian College of Optometry's Certificate in Advanced Contact Lenses, extending his training in the assessment and fitting of more complex contact-lens presentations.
This builds upon many years of experience with contact lenses, including rigid gas permeable lenses, while expanding the range of contemporary contact-lens options that can be considered at Yarra Ranges Optical.
The purpose of undertaking advanced training is not to make every contact-lens fitting more complicated.
Quite the opposite.
It means having a broader understanding of the available options—and being better able to recognise when a straightforward solution is appropriate and when an eye may benefit from something different.
Contact lenses need ongoing care
A successful contact-lens fitting isn't simply about how well you can see when the lenses are first supplied.
Eyes change. Prescriptions change. Contact lenses themselves age. Comfort can change, and the way a lens interacts with the surface of the eye can change over time.
Regular contact-lens reviews allow us to reassess vision, comfort, lens fit, lens condition and the health of the eyes, as well as any difficulties with handling or care.
For more complex lenses, follow-up can also provide an opportunity to refine the prescription or lens design when appropriate.
Our aim is not simply to help you obtain contact lenses. It is to help you continue wearing them successfully, comfortably and safely over time.
Contact lens care in Monbulk and the surrounding area
Yarra Ranges Optical has provided eye care in Monbulk for many years.
Our contact-lens service ranges from everyday soft contact lenses through to assessment for more complex visual needs, allowing people in Monbulk and surrounding communities to explore a broader range of contact-lens possibilities closer to home.
Whether you're considering contact lenses for the first time, have worn them successfully for years, are finding your current lenses aren't working as well as they once did, or have previously given up on contact lenses altogether, the starting point is the same:
Let's understand your eyes, your vision and what you need your contact lenses to do.
Wondering whether contact lenses could work for you?
You don't need to know which contact lens you need before making an appointment.
That's what the assessment is for.
We can examine your eyes, discuss your visual needs and explain the options that may be appropriate—including when contact lenses may not be the best solution.
Book a contact lens consultation at Yarra Ranges Optical
