You may be a person that has been wearing glasses for some time or you may realize that your vision needs to be corrected and are considering going to the eye doctor to find out if you can wear contact lenses. If so, take a few minutes to read about how contacts work and how to go about getting them.

Some History About Contact Lenses

The first contacts actually date back to the 19th century, believe it or not. They were brown glass lenses and were hard to wear but helped people that could not wear glasses. The big breakthroughs came about in the 1940s and 50s when plastic lenses started being made. These early plastic contact lenses were made of polymethyl methacrylte, which did not allow oxygen to pass through. The new ones are rigid gas permeable and allow oxygen to pass through. Your corneas don’t get oxygen from your blood but instead get it from the air around you, so it’s important that contacts are breathable.

Technology in contact lenses continues to improve as we’re seeing new kinds of lenses being made for people that have astigmatism or for people that need bifocals.

Why Do People Wear Contact Lenses?

Most people’s primary reasons for wearing contact lenses is for cosmetic purposes, but there are also other advantages:

* With contact lenses, the lens moves as your eye moves, which is different from eyeglasses, which can often distort images.

* The frame of eyeglassescan block your side / peripheral vision.

* Contacts don’t steam up like eyeglasses do when you go from cold to warm temperatures.

* Sometimes contact lenses are the only solution for people who need vastly different lenses for each eye.

* If you need different types of lenses for each eye, contact lenses may be the only solution that allow your eyes to work their best.

How Do You Go About Getting Contacts?

You should go see your eye doctor and get an eye exam and consultation. You cannot order contact lenses with a prescription for eyeglasses. It’s a much different kind of prescription that you need. You’ll go through some simple vision tests which only take about 10-15 minutes usually. You should also get tested for Glaucoma, if possible – that’s the test that Rachel on Friends didn’t like because it shoots a tiny puff of air into your eye. It’s really not that bad and its an important test to get.