Extended wear contact lenses

Extended-wear lenses are contacts that you can wear overnight. That is, you can go to bed without the usual process of sticking fingers in your eyes, not to mention waking up with a clear view of the morning skies. For some of us, being able to see in bed may also spice certain things up a bit. The trick for making extended wear possible is to allow a very high amount of oxygen to pass through the lens and reach the eye.

Most EW lenses on the market are approved for as much as seven days of uninterrupted wear. But it is not certain that everyone is able to wear extended wear contact lenses overnight safely and comfortably. Wearing contact lenses while sleeping augments the risk of contracting lens-related eye infections. Your eye care practitioner must decide whether you are a candidate for extended wear contacts and set up an appropriate lens wearing schedule.

Most marks of extended wear contacts are disposable soft contact lenses that you should discard according to the lens wearing schedule. Some extended wear lenses are rigid gas permeable contacts; they can be reused for longer periods than disposable soft lenses, but you still need to take them out for cleaning and to let your eyes rest.

A new kind of extended wear soft contact lenses has been approved for 30 days of continuous wear. They are made of a highly permeable, soft lens material that allows significantly more oxygen to pass through the lenses. Your eye care professional will have to evaluate this kind of lens for you as well.