Bausch + Lomb and Lomb Soflens 66 Toric Contact Lenses

WARNING: This is a bit long, so if you just want facts, skip down to the summery below.

I just started wearing contacts in May of 2001. Let me tell you, I was not looking forward to it, but it was much better than wearing glasses day in and day out.

I had heard some interesting horror stories of what can happen while wearing contacts. I think almost anyone who has worn them for a while have a few to tell. You know, the falling one falling out onto some floor in the middle of an important date and never to be "seen" again. Or there was even one where a friend of mine had gone to a special family function at a fancy restaurant and just as she was leaning over to eat, someone said something funny, and there went her contact, you guessed it, right in the middle of an expensive plate of an Italian food. She said that it was one of the most mortifying experiences. She had to sit there digging through her plate while everyone was enjoying their food. She never did find her contact, and never did get to enjoy that meal. Now you see why I was a little worried about contacts. That in addition to all the cleaning and actually having to stick your finger in your eye (that made me want to pass out) I was more than a little bit worried when it came time for the eye exam for the contact fitting.

The exam was painless, it was almost exactly the same as when I was fitted for glasses. It turns out that I have astigmatism in both eyes. The Webster's dictionary defines astigmatism as "an irregularity in the curvature of a lens, including the lens of the eye, so that light rays from an object do not meet a single focal point, resulting in an indistinct or distorted image", now even though it sounds bad, I can assure you that it is extremely common and in most people it just cause blurred vision. Easily corrected with glasses, a little bit more difficult to correct with contact lenses. Lucky me, I guess. And in a addition to the astigmatism, I also have one of the hardest types of vision to correct with contacts. I am farsighted, and my amount of farsightedness is equal to the amount of my astigmatism. It just gets better and better. My doctor suggests that we try Soft Lens 66 toric ("toric" lenses are for astigmatism) he said that those were the lenses that he has had the most success with and he even wears them himself, but due to the prescription for my lenses, we needed to special order them. He said they would be in in about 1 1/2 weeks. Yeah, here we go.

Finally they came in, and somehow I knew that I was on my way to poking an eye out. My name was going to be in the paper for being the first person to loose an eye while trying to put in a contact. Hey, at least I will be in the right place for that to happen.

As soon as I got there, I was told to wash my hands. Okay, easy, can I leave now? Nope. Well, as I sat there (sweating like an Alaskan mover in the Florida sun might I add) the contact lady came over and told me how to pull my eyelids apart so as much of my eye would show as possible (so wide I thought my eyeball would fall out). Then she showed me how to put my contact in the right position on my fingertip, and just told me to stick it in. One...Two...Three...no, changed my mind, okay, okay, I try again...One...Two...Three...(all I could see was my face on the front page of the Virginia Pilot)...jab! Hey, that wasn't so bad. Wait, you mean I have to do this again to the other eye?

With them both in, I was checked and sent home and told to wear them for 4 hrs before I could take them out. Already on the way home, even after being the most nutty person in the world when it comes to things in my eye, I was almost forgetting the contacts were in my eye. They were SO comfortable. I loved it. I think that for that short time (read on) I was completely in love with my optometrist, that is until it was time to remove the contacts. At that point I wanted him dead. It actually wasn't that bad. The contacts came out just as easily as they went in.

I am even happy to mention that they are relatively easy to clean. Soft lens 66 contacts are disposable, so you only have to clean them with multi purpose solution each night right after you take them out. After 14 wears, you just toss them. You don't have to deal with anything other than that when it comes to maintenance.

The only problem that I have experienced is that because these lenses are so thin, they may fold in your eye during use. Personally, I have only had that happen to me a few times, but I have heard of it happening a lot in some people, but that may be because they were fitted incorrectly. All that I have ever had to do to correct the situation is just blink a couple of times and it will straighten itself out. And no fall-outs yet to date (thank goodness).

SUMMERY:

Softlens 66 contact lenses are disposable contact lenses meant to be thrown out after 14 wears. They are made of 66% water and are very thin. These qualities in the contacts make them extremely comfortable to wear. Even though they are thin, I have found them to be very durable and last through the entire 14 wears.

They are slightly tinted blue to make them easier to see if they fall (although, I don't think that this feature would work if they were dropped on a blue or multi colored surface). The blue tint is not noticeable while in the eye, and will not change the color of the eye at all.

They are easy to wear and to care for. The maintenance level is low. The only con that I have noticed is that they have folded while I was wearing them a few times, but it was easily corrected by blinking a few times. This has only happened a few times.

They are manufactured by Bausch and Lomb, and are available in toric for those with astigmatism, and regular for those without.

Available through most major contact dealers, including online.

The price for regular Softlens 66 is around $20.00 (USA), and the price for Softlens 66 toric lenses are around $35.00 (USA), although I have found them for as low as $30.00 (USA) at some online dealers.